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Spain is a Mediterranean country and a member of the EEC (European Economic Community). Spain joined the countries that use the Euro as its legal currency and with 40 million citizens it is one of the more populated European countries. Spain is a good example that shows how an embracing Government policy can make the change. The Spanish Government policy on clean renewable energy positioned Spain as a leader and fast adaptor of solar energy utilization. Spain has more available sunshine than most other European countries and it was a smart move to take advantage of this relative advantage. Spain hopes to reach 3000 megawatts installed solar production capacity (12% of total production capacity) by 2010, a mere 6 years after the Government adapted the new Solar policy
Utility size Solar Power Plants
Spain is a proofing ground to different technologies for large scale electricity production by harnessing Sun radiation. Local and foreign business entities, encouraged by the wise Spanish government policies, rush to build power plants in Spain. The 2 mainstream methods are:
Solar Thermal Power Plants (Solar Towers); hundreds of concentrating mirrors (heliostats) reflects the sun radiation toward a high tower that collects the radiation and heats up water to high temperature steam. The steam drive a turbine much like the turbine used in the conventional power plants. However, the Sun replaces the fossil fuels that generate the steam in the conventional power plant, hence no pollution and no added carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In some of the plants, heat is stored from day to night using melted salt as a high heat capacity material, enabling around the clock operation
Spain encourages mass production manufacturing of solar photovoltaic panels; Two prominent manufacturing companies are BP Solar and Isofoton. Isofoton is Spanish based company, and its production capacity is ranked as number 8 worldwide.
