Solar energy technology is advancing at a spectacular rate, with more and more powerful panels being developed all the time, occupying less space as well

Three kilometres from Moclinejo, on the road that links this village with Almáchar in the heart of the Axarquía, a house and a lane shows the way. Once there, in the area known as Frontilla, the scene that unfolds in front of us could easily be part of the set of a science fiction film. Huge panels in blue tones line the sides of the hills in a scene that will probably become very familiar to all of us in the near future. The age of solar energy has truly come of age.

The 80 photovoltaic plaques in this enormous solar energy park were built by a German company, and will soon generate 6.5 megawatts of electricity, later adding another 1.5 megawatts to the overall supply. Or to put it another way, this park will supply enough electricity for the equivalent of four thousand homes or 20,000 people. To achieve this, it has been necessary to lay a new line measuring 14 kilometres in length to the sub-station in Añoreta. From next September, Moclinejo, with its 1,280 inhabitants, will generate energy for a population twenty times bigger.

But the impact of this new technology goes a lot further than this area. Twenty other municipalities in the province of Malaga are preparing solar energy parks of the same kind, all with zero contamination, if one excludes the purely aesthetic kind. This is an opportunity to make use of land useless for agriculture or building on, while at the same time providing a source of energy that is far less costly than the traditional sources we now use, as much in initial construction as in maintenance. It will also provide employment in areas where many people are currently out of work.

Work on some of these new solar parks is finished, some are almost finished and in most, work is still being carried out. When up and running, they will provide a combined power source superior to 36 megawatts. Given that a single home consumes an average of 4,500 kilowatts an hour, these parks will provide sufficient power for approximately 20,000 homes. For fiscal reasons, the generating capacity in each park will be 1.89 megawatts.

We have to move to the other end of the province to find the first big solar park already working. It is in Campillos, and was inaugurated on 17 June, designed to generate 1.8 megawatts of electricity. The initiative is headed by the Abantia company and covers an area equivalent to eight football pitches, comprising 1,224 mobile structures equipped with 12,150 photovoltaic modules.

Sustainable energy

The first of the solar parks built in Ronda is ready for use and will soon begin generating 1.5 megawatts, and there is still space for another park there, in the area known as La Viña, where 1.89 megawatts can be produced.

The municipality that aims to produce most renewable energy in the future is Antequera. This can already be seen in the new landscape one can see while driving along the A-92 motorway, where modern windmills are now the most visible crops in the fields. Work has already begun on the Cortijo del Cura park, located in the Finca Coditos de la Colonia de Santa Ana on 60,000 square metres of land and designed to produce 1.89 megawatts, thanks to its 27,000 modules. The Town Hall has another seven solar parks in the pipeline, which, with that already built, will supply some 10,000 homes in the area.

Archidona has two solar parks under construction at the moment. The biggest is located in the La Vega area on 25 hectares of land, and this will be one of the most powerful in all of Andalucía, producing 6.5 megawatts. The park in Mohón will be smaller, occupying 9.5 hectares and producing 1.8 megawatts.

Due to the obvious benefits of solar energy production, not only in purely monetary terms but in value to the environment, huge extensions of mirror are being installed all over the interior of the province of Malaga.

This is already happening in the municipality of Humilladero, which will soon be one more producer of clean and renewable energy. There it is planned to generate 3.78 megawatts of electricity in the near future, enough to supply some 2,000 homes, thanks to a new solar park in the Las Perrillas area. Malaga City, Casabermeja, Ardales, Pizarra, the Valley of Abdalajís and Villanueva de la Concepción are also preparing to produce solar energy, with parks capable of supplying between one and two megawatts.

Green future

According to figures provided by the Delegation for Innovation, work will soon begin on the building of another dozen solar parks, which will add about 15 megawatts to the supply network. The Malaga City Hall has just approved an initiative to build its own solar park, supplying enough electricity for all the public services in the city.

In this way, approximately 30,000 homes will obtain electricity, if these plans come to fruition. Although the figure is still small compared with the 500,000 houses registered in the province, it will be a step in the right direction that will point the way towards a cleaner future for all of us.

This is also a growing industry in Malaga, and it is growing very fast indeed. In January of this year, the province had only 0.4 megawatts of photovoltaic solar energy. In September, the figure will rise to above 31 megawatts.

It works in a very simple way. The physical energy of the sun is transformed when it comes into contact with the silicon in the plaques, turning into electrical energy in the process. The direct current that has been produced is transformed into alternative current, and is then sent into the main electrical system through a ring of mid-tension, where it joins the electricity produced by other sources (wind parks, hydroelectric power stations, gas and atomic energy stations and others) and finally reaches the power plugs of the consumer. The modules have a shelf life of about 25 years, and do not generate residues in all that time.

Solar energy technology is advancing at a spectacular rate, with more and more powerful panels being developed all the time, occupying less space as well. There are also the so-called girasol systems, which are designed to follow the sun as it moves across the sky, just like the flower of the same name. Some of the solar parks in the province of Malaga will be using this system, although most will be fixed panels. The biggest challenge facing the rest of Europe in the area of solar energy is knowing when and where the sun will shine. But in Malaga, this is the least of our problems.

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