Naturgy begins construction of its largest photovoltaic plant in Spain with the capacity to supply 157,000 homes

• Campo de Arañuelo, in Extremadura, will have 300 MW of installed capacity and will produce around 515 GWh of renewable energy per year.

• The project will involve an investment of more than €150 million and create more than 1,000 jobs.

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Naturgy has begun construction of its largest photovoltaic facility in Spain, Campo de Arañuelo, located in the province of Cáceres (Extremadura). With 300 MW of peak power, the new plant will produce around 515 GWh of renewable energy a year, an amount equivalent to the electricity consumption of 157,100 households. The facility will also contribute to reducing more than 250,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

Naturgy will invest more than €150 million in the facility, which will cover an area of 290 hectares. During the construction and operation phase, more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created. The works have begun after passing the administrative and environmental development process and once the building permits had been obtained from the two town councils involved, Aldeacentenera and Torrecillas de la Tiesa. It is scheduled to come into operation in 2026.

With this infrastructure, Naturgy will have a total of 442 MW of renewable energy in Extremadura. Campo de Arañuelo will join the Merengue and Merengue II wind farms in Plasencia, and the Miraflores photovoltaic plants in Castuera and Puerta del Jerte, also in Plasencia. Together with Campo de Arañuelo, the Group is building the El Encinar I, Los Naipes and Los Naipes II photovoltaic plants in the municipality of Badajoz, with a combined installed capacity of 150 MW.

In Extremadura, Naturgy manages a portfolio of nine projects at different phases of development, construction and operation, with a total capacity of 651 MW and an overall production of more than 1,300 GWh/year, which will generate electricity equivalent to about 400,000 homes.

Commitment to Energy Transition

Naturgy has made a commitment to be one of the key players in the energy transition towards a circular and decarbonised economy model. The group allocated 90% of the investments made in 2023 to energy transition projects, with €1.730 billion spent on renewable power generation and more than €900 million on distribution networks.

Naturgy currently has an operational installed renewable generation capacity of around 6.5 GW (3.3 GW of wind power generation, 2.2 GW of hydropower generation and 1 GW of photovoltaic generation) and expects to have an installed capacity of around 8 GW in operation by the end of 2024, in addition to a number of projects totalling almost 20 GW in the pipeline, mainly located in Spain, Australia and the USA.

In the field of renewable gases, Naturgy manages a total of 70 projects at different stages. All of them are located in Spain and focus on biomethane (60 projects) or hydrogen (10 projects). Naturgy wants to lead the opportunity that biomethane represents as a vector of the energy transition in our country.

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