Wanna help build a big fat Greek solar power plant? The major utility in Greece said it’s looking for a strategic partner on the construction of a 200-megawatt (MW) capacity photovoltaic plant. As CleanTechnica noted, that’s more than twice as big as the Canadian plant that currently tops PV Resources’ list of largest photovoltaic power plants.
Public Power Corporation’s (PPC) three-paragraph announcement didn’t include a lot in the way of details, but the company did say it’s eying a part of northern Greece known as the Western Lignite Center for the plant.
Lignite is a sort of cross between coal and peat. Obtained by surface mining, it’s often known as brown coal. It’s a major source of fuel for electrical generation in Greece – only Germany produces more lignite among European countries – and PPC says it produces more than 97 percent of Greece’s lignite. So building a solar plant in that area represents a 180-degree turn away from a fuel source that has drawn criticism around Europe for its environmental impact.
PPC said the hoped-for solar power plant would cost around 600 million Euros ($817 million) to build and would generate 260,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.