the solar facility will feature 192,864 photovoltaic panels Voltalia has announced a contract with Green Arrow Capital to build and maintain a 135MW solar project in Spain situated in Seville’s municipality of Sanlucar la Mayor is set to begin construction before the end of this year and is expected to be fully commissioned in 2025 Voltalia chief executive Sébastien Clerc said: “We are delighted with this first collaboration with Green Arrow Capital This new contract confirms the dynamism of Voltalia and Helexia in Spain.” Voltalia has also agreed to offer engineering as well as operation and maintenance (O&M) for at least two years post-commissioning an investment company with a focus on renewable energy and alternative investments has partnered with Voltalia for this project marking a significant resumption of major construction contracts in Spain’s renewable sector Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis Green Arrow Capital founder and chief investment officer Daniele Camponeschi said: “The development of this new solar portfolio in Spain underlines the strategic importance of the Iberian market for Green Arrow Capital and follows other successful investments that allow the group to strengthen its presence in a key sector such as photovoltaics “Having an excellent partner like Voltalia by our side will allow us to ensure the highest quality and sustainability in the execution of the project.” The Spanish solar project construction aligns with Voltalia’s strategy to expand its EPC services for large-scale solar projects This approach caters to a diverse clientele including independent power producers (IPPs) reinforcing the company’s presence in the Spanish EPC market Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Solnova Solar Power Station is a concentrating solar plant located within Europe's largest solar complex Solnova Solar Power Station is a concentrating solar plant located within Europe’s largest solar complex Owned by Abengoa Solar the complex is located in Solúcar la Mayor near Seville The Solnova power station will be the world’s largest concentrating solar power plant with an installed capacity of 250MW upon completion The plant is being built in five stages of 50MW each Its groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2007 while units 2 and 5 are in development stage The three operational units are also provided with gas as an alternative source for generating power constructor and operator of Solnova Solar Power Station The larger Solúcar Complex aims to serve 153,000 households and cut 185,000t of carbon dioxide emissions annually It will be spread over 2,471 acres (1,000ha) of land and will cost an estimated €1.2bn ($1.5bn) The photovoltaic (PV) plants that make up the complex include PS10 have an installed capacity of 11MW and 20MW respectively are relatively smaller plants with installed capacity of 1.2MW and 1MW each Each Solnova power plant unit is built in 284 acres (115ha) of the Solúcar Complex Each unit consists of approximately 300,000m² (3.23 million ft²) of solar field Each unit serves approximately 25,700 homes cutting 31,400t of carbon dioxide emissions annually A futuristic-looking 11MW solar tower has been completed near Seville Spain as part of a 300MW solar power project Unit 1 was the first to be opened for commercial operations It was followed by the opening of Unit 3 in the same month and Unit 4 in August 2010 Each unit employs 360 parabolic trough collectors to reflect the radiation Other infrastructure includes an oil boiler Also included are two electrical buildings sewage and effluent treatment plants and an assembly shop The Solnova solar power plant utilises ASTRØ parabolic trough technology developed by Abengoa Solar The technology involves long rows of curved heliostat mirrors which can be rotated towards the direction of the sun The mirrors reflect the sunlight which is concentrated onto a pipe containing a fluid (synthetic oil) The fluid heats up to 400°C temperature by absorbing the solar radiation The hot fluid is transferred via pipes to heat water vapour in a turbine-generator where electricity is produced The pipes are insulated to minimise the loss of energy during the transfer of the thermal oil and steam This is achieved by covering the pipes in glass wool before coating them with aluminium The estimated construction cost for units 1 and 3 came to around €500m It was 50% financed by the European Investment Bank The photovoltaic plants for unit 4 were financed by La Caixa The construction contract of Solnova units 1 and 3 was awarded to Abener which appointed Teyma as the subcontractor for the civil works Solnova 4 was constructed jointly by Abener and Teyma All the contracts were awarded on a turnkey basis The heliostat mirrors were supplied by Rioglass Bilfinger Berger was responsible for the insulation of pipes and plant components View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network Image #: 33221701 is seen in Sanlucar la Mayor near the Andalusian capital of Seville November 17 Shares in Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa rebounded on Monday – after falling sharply last week – after the company gave details of how it accounted for debt and set new leverage targets for 2014 and 2015 (SPAIN – Tags: BUSINESS ENERGY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) REUTERS /Marcelo del Pozo /LANDOV Support for StateImpact Texas is provided by: One could only hope that our entire energy future will look as whimsical as the solar power station in Sanlúcar la Mayor near Seville This power plant consists of a pair of "concentrated solar power systems," which function in an unusual way A mirror array on the ground consisting of 624 mirrors moves throughout the day tracking the sun and focusing its beams onto the tip of a 160-meter-tall tower The focused light heats up a tank of water at the tip of the tower which in turn powers the steam turbine of an electrical generator This simple process can generate up to 20 megawatts of energy The first of the pair of solar towers in the Sanlúcar la Mayor plant When the entire complex is completed in 2013 the plant will produce enough energy for 180,000 homes equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville The tower will prevent the emission of more than 600,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year the price of electricity produced by this power station is still three times higher than energy produced by conventional means That price is expected to continue to fall The "plyscraper" is the world's tallest building made predominantly out of wood continuously moving elevators still in use in the U.K The first skyscraper to include a Ferris wheel built into the facade The "stairway to heaven" lookout tower was built to resist weather This 47-story "M" needed 20 years to be completed Giant wind turbine with observation deck at the very top Old-fashioned knowledge and modern engineering create the world's only rotating boatlift This distinctive bug-like bridge is made of recycled horseshoes Construction of utility-scale renewable-power facilities around the world has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Although the total percentage of global power needs met by photovoltaic energy alone remains small, at about 6 percent Governments and large companies are building massive facilities to provide both solar thermal and photovoltaic energy converting the sun’s energy into electricity for millions of homes and businesses Solar-panel farms are being installed on hillsides in floating arrays in harbors or reservoirs Gathered below are images of some of these new solar-power installations around the world We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025 and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs The magazine has featured contributions from many leading international affairs experts VARUN SIVARAM is Douglas Dillon Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. TERYN NORRIS is a former Special Adviser at the U.S Varun Sivaram and Teryn Norris It was only on the sidelines of the summit that Paris delivered good news on the technology front Bill Gates unveiled the Breakthrough Energy Coalition a group of more than two dozen wealthy sponsors that plan to pool investments in early stage clean energy technology companies President Barack Obama announced Mission Innovation an agreement among 20 countries—including the world’s top three emitters and India—to double public funding for clean energy R & D to $20 billion annually by 2020 since over half of the target will come from doubling the U.S government’s current $6.4 billion yearly budget Fighting climate change successfully will certainly require sensible government policies to level the economic playing field between clean and dirty energy such as putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions But it will also require policies that encourage investment in new clean energy technology which even a level playing field may not generate on its own That will take leadership from the United States the only country with the requisite innovative capacity the United States has seen investment in clean energy innovation surge forward the government should dramatically ramp up its support for private and public R & D at home and abroad The key to a low-carbon future lies in electric power Improvements in that sector are important not just because electric power accounts for the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions but also because reaping the benefits of innovations downstream—such as electric vehicles—requires a clean electricity supply upstream Fossil-fueled power plants now account for nearly 70 percent of electricity globally the International Energy Agency has warned this figure must plummet to seven percent just to give the world a 50 percent chance of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius More fossil-fueled power is acceptable only if the carbon emissions can be captured and stored underground to the point where they supply most of the world’s electricity by the middle of the century cleaning up the transportation sector will require great technological leaps forward Alternative fuels are barely competitive when oil prices are high if climate policies succeed in reducing the demand for oil making it even harder for alternative fuels to compete The recent plunge in oil prices may offer a mere foretaste of problems to come: it has already put biofuel companies out of business and lured consumers away from electric vehicles The wish list goes on: new ways to tap previously inaccessible reservoirs of geothermal energy biofuels that don’t compete with food crops and ultra-efficient equipment to heat and cool buildings but most need a fundamental breakthrough in the lab or a first-of-its-kind demonstration project in the field the quest for the ideal catalyst to use sunlight to split water still hasn’t produced a winning chemical and an efficient solar power coating called “perovskite” still isn’t ready for widespread use even as global financial flows to deploy mature clean energy doubled to $288 billion private investment in early stage companies sank by nearly 50 percent But the United States can reverse that trend Since the development of civilian nuclear power after World War II the United States has experienced two booms in clean energy innovation the federal government quadrupled investment in energy R & D funding major improvements in both renewable and fossil fuel energy sources But when the price of oil collapsed in the 1980s the administration of President Ronald Reagan urged Congress to leave energy investment decisions to market forces slashing energy R & D funding by more than 50 percent over Reagan’s two terms The second wave of investment in clean energy innovation began with the private sector venture capital investors began pumping money into U.S Venture capital investment in the sector grew tenfold from roughly $460 million per year in 2001 to over $5 billion by 2010 the government plowed over $100 billion into the sector through a mix of grants and tax incentives (although most of this influx subsidized the deployment of existing technologies) Some of the start-ups from this period became successful publicly traded companies and the surviving ones returned too little to make up for the losses of the $36 billion that venture capital firms invested from 2004 to 2014 The gold rush ended abruptly: from 2010 to 2014 venture capital firms cut their clean energy investment portfolios by 75 percent reeling from political blowback over the bankruptcies of some recipients of federal loan guarantees (most famously for the failures of these two waves offer lessons for how to make sure the next one proves more enduring they revealed just how important government funding is: after the drop in federal energy R & D in the 1980s although the United States is the largest funder of energy R & D in the world it chronically underspends compared with its investments in other national research priorities Its $6.4 billion clean energy R & D budget is just a fraction of the amount spent on space exploration ($13 billion) Congress should follow through on the Mission Innovation pledge and at least double funding for clean energy R & D Congress increased spending on applied energy R & D by ten percent in its 2016 budget more than it increased spending on any other major R & D agency or program doubling the budget in five years will require annual increases of at least 15 percent The second lesson is that the government should fund not only basic research but applied research and demonstration projects President Franklin Roosevelt’s top science adviser urged the government to focus on basic research which would generate insights that the private sector was supposed to translate into commercial technologies Successive administrations mostly heeded his advice slashing nearly all funding for applied energy R & D basic research would account for 60 percent of all federal spending on energy R & D Instead of creating space for the private sector to pick up where the government left off Private investment shrank by half from 1985 to 1995 stranding public investments in alternative fuels A similar story unfolded at the end of the second boom in clean energy innovation When one-time stimulus funding expired after 2011 public funding for demonstration projects—which prove whether new technologies work in real-world conditions—fell by over 90 percent Private investors had expected to share the risk of such projects with the federal government investors pulled their money out—canceling several projects to capture and store carbon emissions from coal power plants policymakers should increase the kind of public investment that attracts private capital the first priority should be to restore public funding for demonstration projects The last redoubt of support for these projects can be found in the Department of Energy’s politically embattled loan guarantee program To insulate funding from political caprice federally chartered corporation that would finance demonstration projects Others have proposed empowering states or regions to fund their own projects both proposals could unlock considerable private investment The Department of Energy has made more progress in supporting technologies not yet mature enough for demonstration with inspiration from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency military’s incubator for high-risk technologies it created the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy Several ARPA-E projects have already attracted follow-on investment from the private sector a start-up that is developing a kite that converts high-altitude wind energy into power The department has also curated public-private partnerships among the government and companies—dubbed “innovation hubs”—to develop advanced technologies Obama has advocated tripling ARPA-E’s budget to $1 billion by 2021 and creating ten new public-private research centers around the country The Department of Energy should expand its support for one type of public-private partnership in particular: industrial consortia that pool resources to pursue shared research priorities it helped fund a consortium of computer chip manufacturers called SEMATECH through which the industry invested in shared R & D and technical standards the United States had regained market leadership from Japan firms spent a paltry $3 billion per year on in-house clean energy R & D They were also reluctant to outsource their energy R & D acquiring clean energy start-ups only half as often as they did biomedical start-ups Public-private partnerships should help diversify the set of private investors funding clean energy innovation venture capitalists alone are insufficient since clean energy investments require capital for periods longer than venture capitalists generally favor The Breakthrough Energy Coalition may help solve that problem by infusing the sector with more patient capital Gates has explained that he and his fellow investors would be willing to wait for years But his vision depends on the government also ramping up support Past failures offer a third and final lesson for policymakers: the need to level the playing field on which emerging clean energy technologies compete against existing ones innovative start-ups are at a disadvantage since they lack early adopters willing to pay a premium for new products tend to be highly regulated territorial monopolies that have little tolerance for risk and spend extremely little on R & D (usually 0.1 percent of total revenues) New York and California are reforming their regulations to encourage utilities to adopt new technologies faster; the federal government should support these efforts financially or might buy early stage technologies such as flexible solar panels Clean energy innovation at the international level suffers from similar problems other governments spend too little on R & D with the share of all publicly funded R & D in clean energy falling from 11 percent in the early 1980s to four percent in 2015 But if spending rises in an uncoordinated way governments may duplicate some areas of research and omit others the wrong way to solve this problem would be through a centralized top-down process to direct each country’s research priorities an existing institution should coordinate spending through a bottom-up approach The most logical body for that task is the Clean Energy Ministerial a global forum conceived by the Obama administration that brings together energy officials from nearly every Mission Innovation country The Obama administration should therefore act quickly to convince its Mission Innovation partners to help fund a permanent secretariat and operating budget for the CEM the body could issue an annual report of each member’s R & D expenditures which countries could use to hold their peers accountable for their pledges to double funding The CEM could also convene officials to share trends about the frontiers of applied research gleaned from grant applications submitted to national funding bodies Then there is the problem of foreign companies’ aversion to investing in innovation Producers of everything from solar panels to batteries have focused instead on ruthless cost cutting and in many cases have taken advantage of government assistance to build up massive manufacturing capacity to churn out well-understood technologies over two-thirds of solar panels are produced in China where most firms spend less than one percent of their revenue on R & D cookie-cutter solar panels from China that caused U.S solar start-ups to go bankrupt at the beginning of this decade.) Not only does this global race to the bottom stunt clean energy innovation; it also matches up poorly with the United States’ competitive strengths firms generate economic gains both at home and abroad by investing heavily in R & D companies reinvest up to 20 percent of their revenues in R & D To encourage foreign companies to invest more in clean energy R & D the United States should embrace public-private collaboration A good model is the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center which was set up in 2009 and is funded by the U.S CERC removes a major obstacle to international collaboration: intellectual property theft Participants are bound by clear rules about the ownership and licensing of technologies invented through CERC they must submit disputes to international arbitration governed by UN rules China and the United States enthusiastically extended the partnership It’s time for the United States to apply CERC’s intellectual property framework to collaborations with other countries By investing at home and leading a technology push abroad the United States would give clean energy innovation a badly needed boost Energy executives would at last rub elbows with top academics at technology conferences Industrial consortia would offer road maps for dramatic technological improvements that forecast future breakthroughs And institutional investors would bet on start-ups and agree to wait a decade or more before seeing a return transforming the energy sector into an innovative powerhouse would prove even harder and costlier than the Manhattan Project or the Apollo mission the government spent billions of dollars on a specific goal whereas success in clean energy innovation requires both public and private investment in a wide range of technologies Yet the United States has achieved similar transformations before biomedical start-ups endured boom-and-bust investment cycles in the 1980s and 1990s partly thanks to high and sustained public funding the private sector invests extensively in biomedical innovation One might object that the biomedical industry’s high profit margins in contrast to the slim ones that characterize the clean energy industry But the clean energy sector need not be condemned to permanently small profits: innovative firms could earn higher margins than today’s commodity producers by developing new products that serve unmet demands it needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by the middle of this century—a target that is simply out of reach with existing technology But armed with a more potent low-carbon arsenal countries could make pledges to cut emissions that were both ambitious and realistic Emerging economies would no longer face tradeoffs between curbing noxious fossil fuels and lifting their populations out of energy poverty And the United States would place itself at the forefront of the next technological revolution Subscribe to Foreign Affairs to get unlimited access Already a subscriber? Sign In Michael Albertus Daniel Yergin, Peter Orszag, and Atul Arya Mariana Mazzucato Trevor Sutton and Arunabha Ghosh Brian Deese Craig Martin and Scott Moore Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay Tong Zhao Zongyuan Zoe Liu Anne Neuberger Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription Published by The Council on Foreign Relations Privacy Policy Terms of Use From the publishers of  Foreign Affairs This website uses cookies to improve your experience You can opt-out of certain cookies using the cookie management page * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience Spain is making use of its 300 sunny days per year by powering thousands of homes with Europe's first commercial solar-thermal tower plant and.. Spain Runs Europe's First Commercial Solar Plant A company in Spain has started producing household electricity from a solar power plant near Seville The technology is called concentrated solar thermal energy which means it uses heat from the sun to run steam turbine generators And running it doesn't generate any greenhouse gases There's not a cloud in the sky on the dusty plain outside Seville there's a glow from what looks like an upside-down funnel of light beams converging on a sleek Those light beams come from giant mirrors on the ground reflecting the sun's rays It's Europe's first commercial solar thermal power plant — and it's called PS-10 "PS-10 is an 11-megawatt electric power plant and it's providing electricity for a population of about 6,000 houses," says Valerio Fernandez the engineer in charge of the plant built by the Spanish renewable energy company The plant has been operational since March 2006 and is still being expanded Bulldozers are clearing the ground for more banks of mirrors and solar towers that will bring the plant's output up to 300 megawatts Fernandez says that when all of the solar platforms are erected in 2013 the plant will be supplying electricity to about 180,000 houses That is about the same as the population of a city like Seville Fernandez opens the door to the chamber that houses the noisy turbines at the base of the tower he looks out over a vast plain that could easily be a prairie in the southwestern United States there are shimmering fields of heliostatic mirrors — mirrors that automatically follow the sun "This is one of the most beautiful views in the plant," Fernandez says "We are 30 meters high in this platform that is in the middle of the tower and you can see the whole heliostat field." There are 624 solar panels reflecting sunlight up to the tower You can actually see the light beams focusing on a point And at that focal point there are flashes and little puffs of smoke — specks of drifting dust being vaporized The solar energy concentrated at the top could easily melt metal But water pumped through them stops them from melting Seville gets up to 300 days of sunshine per year Fernandez has a vision of solar towers dotting the landscape across southern Spain and even into northern Africa His company is already setting up plants in Morocco and Algeria and is in negotiations to build more in California it will have cost more than one and a half billion dollars to build It is only economically viable because of generous subsidies from the Spanish government and the European Union But Fernandez says the technology is already getting cheaper passengers waiting for the train to Granada say they're glad the project has been built in southern Spain Almudena Molina thinks energy should be subsidized even more says projects like the solar tower should be built now Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney are set to meet today as tensions between their two countries rise the best looks from last night's star-studded Met Gala Most Americans frequently use federal science information But few are concerned that cuts to federal science spending could affect their access to such information Prime Minister Mark Carney won the Canadian election vowing to take on President Trump they meet for the first time in the Oval Office Critics warn that despite President Trump's call to end the purported weaponization of the Justice Department it has become more politicized in the president's first three months back in office The Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" platform has boosted the agenda of a conservative think tank that's been working for more than a decade to reshape the nation's public assistance programs The Posse Comitatus Act restricts using federal troops in civilian law enforcement but Trump's crackdown on immigration is shaping up to be a major test for the law The suspension of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission raises questions about future efforts to investigate the country's foreign adoption program Implementing the law involved years of negotiations between federal and state officials The tiny east African country of Rwanda says it's holding "early talks" with the Trump administration about taking in deported migrants from the U.S The Trump administration on Monday asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit from three GOP-led states seeking to cut off telehealth access to abortion medication mifepristone Bukele had announced that all bus fares for a week would be completely free due to construction the government was carrying out on one of the main highways running through San Salvador President Trump issued an executive order Monday banning federal funding for any research abroad that involves a field of scientific study known as "gain-of-function" research Photo by CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/Getty Images In the “Six-Point Inspection,” we take a quick look at new books that are changing the way we see our world Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism by Ozzie Zehner says U.C.-Berkeley energy policy scholar Zehner and simpler non-technological solutions can make us greener faster You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: You’ve started using your solar panels primarily as sock warmers Cocktail party fodder: Spain has prided itself on being a leader in solar and wind power its greenhouse gas emissions have risen 40 percent For optimal benefit: Consider this book your license to tell a lot of sanctimonious people to get lost Snap judgment: With chapter subtitles like “Step Away From the Pom-Poms” and epigraphs from the likes of Dr Zehner is a delightful apostate in the church of green energy Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser scholars at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society think we can do more to take advantage of our interconnected world—as long as we prepare for its dangers They posit that their theory of connected systems which they call interop (short for interoperability) can go beyond the Internet and change the way we live and work Literary lovechild of: James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds and Tim Wu’s The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: You’re the visionary who got your office to join the cloud computing revolution and install Dropbox 51,000 tons of redundant cell phone chargers are produced (Probably enough to power 7 trillion pointless text messages.) For optimal benefit: Start reading on your iPad then move to the app on your Android phone before hitting the beach with the hardcover but do not be the first to use the word in social settings Snap judgment: Palfrey and Gasser nicely toe the line between digital dystopians and globalization shills—they’re forward-looking but pragmatic Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back by Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy futurist Zolli and writer Healy investigate disasters ranging from the Northeast blackout of 2003 to the decimation of sea urchins on Jamaican coral reefs we need to create infrastructure that emphasizes resilience Literary lovechild of: Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Laurence Gonzales’ Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why You’ll find it on your bookshelf if: Your brain is encased in the world’s first rubber skull Cocktail party fodder: In a population that experiences trauma while another one-third to two-thirds will prove resilient For optimal benefit: Read before subjecting yourself to war Snap judgment: It feels like every few months brings a new global-level crisis—but Zolli and Healy are persuasive in arguing that the outcomes don’t need to be so dire This Six-Point Inspection is being published simultaneously on Zócalo Public Square and Slate magazine The Local Europe ABVästmannagatan 43113 25 StockholmSweden One of Europe's biggest ever power outages hit Spain and Portugal on Monday halting public transport and plunging cities into darkness No firm cause for the blackout has yet emerged warned in its annual financial report for 2024 published in February that "the high penetration of renewable generation without the necessary technical capacity to deal adequately with disturbances" in Spain "can lead to production cuts" even leading to an imbalance between production and demand which would significantly affect the electricity supply" Asked about the report on Wednesday during an interview with news radio Cadena Ser Redeia president Beatriz Corredor said it was "wrong" to link Monday's giant blackout to the high level of renewable energy use in Spain Renewable energy production "is safe" and "linking Monday's serious incident to the penetration of renewables is not true The 380-page annual financial report was merely listing a series of potential risks as it is required to do by law they already have mechanisms that allow them to work practically" like "conventional" technologies Redeia warned in its report that the "loss of firm production" due to the closure of "conventional" power plants that use gas and coal could lead to "greater difficulty in operating the system an increase in production limitations and technical restrictions The report also warned of the "risk of an attack or incident affecting IT systems" which could "affect electricity supply" in Spain and "lead to costs and reputational damage" for Redeia Spain's top criminal court is investigating whether the blackout was "an act of computer sabotage" but REE has ruled out a cyberattack Please log in here to leave a comment Spain - November 2019 - The XV General Assembly of the Salesian Youth Movement in Europe and the Middle East took place in the Salesian house of "Sanlucar La Mayor" More than 60 participants from 17 countries joined the event respectively General Councilors for Youth Ministry of Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians conducted a study session on the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis The so-called "Small Team" of the SYM Europe and the Middle East then promoted a sharing of experiences on the post-Synod course "Youth Faith and Vocational Discernment" at the regional level and presented a roadmap towards the future "Confronto" in 2021 A message was also written for the youth of SYM Europe and the Middle East which will soon be released for participants of the 28th General Chapter of the Salesians and the 24th General Chapter of the FMA ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements These 9 Andalusian towns take Christmas so seriously that their traditions and Christmas proposals attract hundreds of visitors every year there are also picturesque corners such as these that make Christmas their own unique celebrations and traditions that deserve at least a visit Undisputed first stop on a tour that has much to do with the palate Estepa is one of the cradles of Christmas as its handmade delicacies go around Andalusia to sweeten our palate in Estepa we can also enjoy one of the greatest chocolate shows: the Chocolate City La Estepeña is the factory that prepares every year this model with the most iconic attractions of Seville (although as a novelty this year represents the most emblematic buildings of Madrid) the Museo del Mantecado is the official home of the polvorones Travel to Jerez to sing Christmas carols to the rhythm of the zambomba? The answer is always yes. Christmas is not understood in this town in Cádiz without the music A party around the zambomba of the hand of one of the most iconic wines of Andalusia one of the villages of Andalusia that carries the Christmas flag Higuera de la Sierra (Huelva) celebrates the oldest Epiphany parade in Andalusia and the second oldest in Spain About 30,000 people come to the historic center to enjoy this centenary parade the Museum of the Three Kings Parade is a space that brings together its unique history What better than the pasture and the local gastronomy to frame such a Christmas town like this Galleros de Rute recovers every year this spectacular tradition: to elaborate a gigantic Bethlehem made with chocolate With an extension of more than 56 square meters and more than 1,450 kilos of chocolate they have opted to respect the usual theme and “return to the most classic formula Pure chocolate and details of marzipan and sugar make up this majestic ephemeral work that attracts thousands of visitors every year Possibly this Huelva town is the funniest corner of Spain here New Year’s Eve is celebrated twice the neighbors decided to dress up and rehearse the chimes in the Calle Real (with all the parade included) On other occasions it has been celebrated up to 52 hours after the official celebration Those who like to escape to out-of-the-ordinary visits will find in this destination a humorous touch for the holidays Although we should not make the mistake of comparing the Christmas lighting of a small town in Cordoba with the big national cities Puente Genil can boast of being one of the most recognized in the Christmas context And it is that every year surprises with a sensational lighting display it was the second Spanish town to have electric lights A million energy-saving lights illuminate the streets of this Cordoba town every year with decorative elements of all kinds The oldest nativity scene in Andalusia has been attracting curious people from all over the country since 1970 to contemplate the classic biblical scenes The visitor will be able to delight with scenes taken care of to the detail as well as other costumbristas own of the province of Huelva A journey that opens the way to a universe of trades the Living Nativity Scene of Beas has been awarded numerous prizes by different associations of nativity scene makers One of the 7 Wonders of the Province of Huelva and certainly one of the villages of Andalusia more devoted to Christmas Would you like to take a refreshing dip in the Mediterranean waters in the middle of December and since it has become fashionable for some time now there are many who decide to start the year with a dip in the town of Almuñécar The beach of San Cristobal is your place if you are prone to these little follies The Living Nativity Scene of Sanlúcar la Mayor is one of the essential Christmas events in the province of Seville A popular event organized by the brotherhood of Good Friday of the town and that elevates this tradition to excellence waterfalls and a detailed characterization to frame the scenes following the biblical narrative All this harmonized with the usual Christmas carols and hundreds of extras from the arrival of the Magi to the fields of Judea Employees at a lottery shop in Sanlucar la Mayor southern Spain – where the winning number of El Gordo was sold – celebrating with champagne The winners of Spain’s cherished Christmas lottery – the world’s richest – celebrated around the country on Sunday a moment of joy and relief after another year of a brutal financial crisis Millions were glued to their televisions as €2.5 billion in prize money was distributed The draw is so popular that most of Spain’s 46 million people watched at least part of the live four-hour show hoping they would hear their ticket as schoolchildren called out the lucky numbers Unlike lotteries that offer one large jackpot Spain’s Yuletide drawing sprinkles a variety of winnings on thousands of ticketholders The top prize – known as El Gordo (The Fat One) – gave lucky winners €400,000 per ticket while the second-best number netted them €125,000 the taxman will claim 20 per cent of winnings above €2,500 as the Spanish government strives to right an economy saddled with a sky-high unemployment rate of 26 per cent Ticket buyers often spoke of spending their winnings on new cars or second homes by the beach.. Now many Spaniards are just hoping to avoid having their homes or cars repossessed Winning El Gordo tickets this year were sold in at least eight locations throughout the country including a working-class suburb in Madrid and the northern industrial city of Modragon where large electrical appliance manufacturer Fagor Electrodomesticos filed for bankruptcy in October a mechanic living in the Madrid suburb of Leganes said he had been watching the drawing in bed when he realised he had won “We jumped out of bed and ran out,” he said adding that he would “pay the mortgage Clavero said he was one of five members of his family who had bought the same number ticket The entire lot of second-prize tickets – worth €1.3 million – was sold in the town of Granadilla de Abona on the Canary Island resort of Tenerife Among the audience watching the draw in person at Madrid’s Teatro Real Opera House was Jesus Lorente who said he bought his second-prize ticket at a gas station in Granadilla de Abona The beaming 27-year-old caterer said he would use his winnings to “plug gaps” in his personal finances Before Spain’s property-led economic boom imploded in 2008 ticket buyers often talked of spending their winnings on new cars or second homes by the beach or going on fancy vacations “The ticket is stored in a safe place at home,” Lorente said please register for free or log in to your account.