Figueruelas will have the largest wind and solar park in an automotive factory in Europe

The “ambitious” project, in the words of Manuel Munárriz, who will be director of the plant until October 1 after being promoted, Zaragoza plant will lead the automotive industry across Europe decarbonization production processes. And it will do so with skyrocketing energy costs and the electrification process of the Stellantis group’s vehicle fleet, which will comply with the EU’s 2030-only license to sell electric cars. In fact, Munárriz explained during a visit by the Spanish consortium this Wednesday. submitted the claims about the electric vehicle to PERTE.

Thus, making the most of 1,800 equivalent hours of sunlight and 3,500 hours of wind per year in its facilities, Stellantis aims to generate 30.8 MW of electricity from solar resources and 25.4 MW from wind resources. Electricity consumption of the Zaragoza plant in 2024.

Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, promised that the group would reach zero emissions by 2038, and Zaragoza took him to his word. “You have to attack from the entire production chain. And Zaragoza is a pioneer,” Munárriz assured. Of course it will, because before it reaches target that the company wants to reduce its emissions to 50% by 2030. But Figueruelas wants to be a pioneer and is already devising a plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 80% by 2030, although Munárriz wants this to be 100% through the use of renewable energies, consumption reduction and decarbonisation actions.

The new green facility, located in the southern part of the power plant, will have 15,600 photovoltaic modules with an installed power of 8.01 MW. These figures will need to be added to the first phase, the first solar park will generate enough power to exceed 163,000 square meters, the equivalent of 23 football fields, and cover a third of Figueruelas’ electricity costs. In December, the final solar phase will begin, a new macro installation in the north that will generate 14 megawatts of power.

But it won’t be until 2023 when wind turbines will be installed. For days, they’ve been measuring whether it’s possible to build these giant wind farms, which generate enormous amounts of energy, on the vast land covered by the plant. Finally, they will be installed in two phases: In the first, scheduled for June, two 5.7 MW windmills will be installed in the southern region, which will be complemented by two other 7 MW wind turbines in the northwest. The factory will be put into service in December 2023.

40 million investment

Investment reached 40 million euroshowever, Stellantis will not undertake. The automotive giant has reached an agreement with Alicante-based company Prosolia Energy to supply electricity “for at least the next 15 years,” according to the company’s CEO, Javier Martínez. In this way, Stellantis Zaragoza provided the land, but the ownership of the plates and wind turbines belongs to Prosolia, which undertakes the monumental investment and will distribute it to the Figueruelas plant to recover green energy.

The management of the Figueruelas factory is considering different options that are not currently in the plan to achieve 100% electrical self-sufficiency. The key may be in battery-based storage, as Munárriz has been overlooked, but little is known about it.

In fact, there will be those who would think that the moment Stellantis launched for self-consumption, it nailed it with energy and gas prices skyrocketing. In any case, the current director of the plant, Manuel Munárriz, explained that the factory planned this process “well before” the war in Ukraine, but the current situation of rising energy prices will accelerate the stages until it reaches Energy. to store. It has chosen to reduce gas consumption “as much as possible”.