Mitsui & Co. will participate in the solar power generation business in Spain by purchasing a 30 per cent stake in local solar power company Guzman Energia SL.

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World Utilities Congress 2027

The Japanese trading house will effectively be partnering with Guzman's parent, contractor Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA, as a result of the deal worth several billion yen.

Guzman is constructing a concentrating solar power plant on the outskirts of the southern Spanish city of Cordoba. The 50 MW project is expected to cost some 30 billion yen, with half to be covered by project financing. Using a government preferred-power-purchasing system, it will start selling enough electricity to power 26 000 households in late 2012.

According to Mitsui, the project is expected to reduce CO ₂ emissions by 30 000 tons a year.

The project will generate electricity by concentrating sunlight with mirrors, heating up a heat transfer fluid that in turn will produce steam to turn turbines. This approach offers the advantages of emitting no carbon dioxide during power generation and being more efficient than conventional solar power.