Naturgy has begun construction work on three new photovoltaic plants in Castilla-La Mancha: the Zorita I and Zorita II facilities, located in the vicinity of the former José Cabrera nuclear power plant between the municipalities of Almonacid de Zorita and Zorita de los Canes (Guadalajara), and the Ocaña plant in the municipality of Ocaña (Toledo).
The Group will invest more than 76 million euros in the three plants, which together will increase Castilla-La Mancha’s renewable power capacity by 150 MWp and create more than 1,000 jobs in the various construction and operation phases.
The three new photovoltaic plants will produce around 310 GWh per year, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 86,000 households, and will displace the use of other conventional power generation sources to help prevent more than 172,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. These facilities are scheduled to start operating in 2025.
The start of this construction work consolidates Naturgy’s commitment to energy transition in Castilla-La Mancha. In addition to these three photovoltaic plants, the Group manages 20 other renewable energy projects in the region that will increase capacity by 1,000 MW.
These are five battery storage projects hybridised with solar energy, 12 projects to hybridise wind farms with photovoltaic technology and three projects to hybridise three hydropower plants with solar energy. These projects, which are currently at various stages of being processed, will help strengthen supply quality in the Spanish electricity system, promoting the integration of renewable energy in the network.
Commitment to Castilla-La Mancha
These three new solar facilities strengthen Naturgy’s commitment to Castilla-La Mancha, where it currently operates more than 1,150 MW of wind, photovoltaic and hydropower through 29 facilities spread across different provinces.
The company manages 12 wind farms: Loma Gorda, San Gil and Peña I (Tartanedo) and Canredondo I (Canredondo) in Guadalajara; Malagón I and Malagón II in Ciudad Real; and Los Pedreros (Fuente Álamo), Sierra de la Oliva (Almansa), La Losilla (Chinchilla de Montearagón), La Fuensanta (Peñas de San Pedro) and Casa del Aire I and II (El Bonillo) in Albacete.
In terms of photovoltaic technology, Naturgy operates seven solar plants. The Picón I, Picón II and Picón III (Porzuna) and La Nava (Almodóvar del Campo) plants are located in the province of Ciudad Real, and in Toledo the company operates Carpio de Tajo (El Carpio de Tajo), which began operating in 2019, as well as the Toledo PV plant in La Puebla de Montalbán, which is the oldest in Europe as it began operating in 1994 with a peak power of 1 MW. In addition, the Canredondo plant came into operation in Guadalajara in 2021.
Finally, in terms of hydropower generation, the company operates nine hydropower plants in Castilla-La Mancha in the provinces of Guadalajara, Cuenca and Toledo, and one mini-hydro plant in Guadalajara.
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 1.73 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. According to the latest analyses by the Spanish gas association Sedigas, biomethane could potentially reach 160 Twh in Spain, equivalent to 50% of the current natural gas demand.