Argentina to Build Most Powerful Solar Energy Park in Latin America

In the western Argentinian province of San Juan, the provincial government has authorized the development of what will be the most powerful solar energy park in Latin America to date. The park is hoped to be operational by the summer of 2010.

A Buenos Aires landmark, the solar powered Floralis Generica.

A bidding process will begin in June of this year, and Brazilian, German, and Spanish companies are expected to invest in the project, which has an estimated price tag of $120 million dollars. The provinicial government of San Juan has already agreed to invest between $15 and $20 million.

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According to Spanish news source Cronista, the planned solar park would produce between 1500 and 2400 megawatts of energy, which would make it the biggest single producer of solar energy throughout all South American and Latin American countries, and not to mention quite a large producer in comparison to other facilities throughout the world. A pilot project will first test a number of solar panel technologies on about 12 acres of land.

Construction on the project is hoped to begin in September of this year, and last for a period of 8 to 10 months. The governor of San Juan, José Luis Gioja said of the project: “We are promoting the use of alternative, renewable energies to change the electrical matrix of our country, which needs clean energy for a better quality of life. The idea is to generate energy using the heat of our earth, that we will be implementing in gradual form, as things are completed.”

Argentina currently does not exploit its solar power potential to any great extent. In 2005, only 81 megawatts were generated throughout the country from solar power, constituting less than 0.1% of the country’s entire energy production.

The most famous application of solar power in the country is perhaps the Floralis Generica in Buenos Aires. The “Generic Flower” is a large metallic sculpture that opens its petals with the sun at morning, and closes them at night, thanks to solar power. Maybe in the future Argentina’s large solar park will be an equally formidable tourist attraction.

Photo Credit: Fortes on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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