Santa Pola, Spain Launches 200 kW Collective Photovoltaic Energy Community

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 12, the Santa Pola City Council in the Province of Alicante, Spain, held a public presentation event for the local energy community at Santa Pola Castle, officially launching a collective self-consumption project based on rooftop photovoltaic installations at two public buildings. The two installations are located at the Virgen de Loreto School and the José Antonio Aleman Sports Center in Gran Alacant, each with a capacity of 100 kW, totaling 200 kW. The expected annual power generation exceeds 300,000 kWh, and electricity can be distributed to up to 200 households and businesses.

The school rooftop photovoltaic installation consists of 200 550 Wp polycrystalline silicon modules, divided into 10 series strings of 20 modules each, connected to Huawei SUN2000-100KTL-M inverters, and installed parallel to the existing roof structure. The construction budget for this installation is EUR 93,170. The photovoltaic system at the sports center uses a similar configuration. The two installations respectively cover the Santa Pola urban area and Gran Alacant, forming the first public photovoltaic generation nodes of the local energy community.

According to the plan published by the City Council, the two plants are expected to generate more than 300,000 kWh per year, distributed to households and commercial users who join the energy community, and are expected to cover up to approximately 50% of the energy demand of participating users. The project has a user cap of 200 households and businesses, and the specific electricity allocation depends on generation output, the number of participating users, and their respective consumption patterns. The City Council estimates that participating households could save up to approximately 20% on their electricity bills.

Participants do not need to install photovoltaic modules on their own homes, nor do they need to bear the initial investment for personal photovoltaic equipment or switch electricity suppliers. Under the locally applicable collective self-consumption rules, the distance between the user's supply point and the generation facility may be up to 5 km, and the Santa Pola City Council considers this range to essentially cover the entire municipality. The City Council will set up a dedicated application portal on its official website, publishing the conditions for joining, required documents, and application procedures.

The project is implemented by the Santa Pola City Council in cooperation with the Enercoop Group, which provides technical and legal support and whose parent company is the Crevillent Electric Cooperative. The collective photovoltaic energy community model adopted by the project draws on the practical experience of the COMPTEM-Crevillent project. After the first two installations are completed, Santa Pola will use public building rooftops as centralized generation points to distribute photovoltaic electricity to nearby residents and businesses.