Spanish energy company Iberdrola has announced plans to build its first floating photovoltaic (PV) plant in Brazil.

Iberdrola will build the solar project at the Xaréu dam on the island of Fernando de Noronha through its subsidiary, Neoenergia.

The project will require a €2m ($2.1m) investment and feature nearly 940 solar panels.

It will be Iberdrola’s first floating PV plant in the world to date.

For this project, the company has partnered with Companhia Pernambucana de Saneamento (Compesa), which operates Fernando de Noronha’s water and sewage distribution network.

The project will also support the Energy Efficiency Programme regulated by the Brazilian National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).

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The initiative will allow Iberdrola to test this new technology and assess its possible expansion.

Once operational, the floating solar plant will generate around 1.2GWh of green energy while displacing more than 1,660t of carbon emissions a year.

It will provide enough clean energy to meet 50% of Compesa’s energy consumption on the island.

Construction works at the site are expected to begin before the end of this year.

In addition to this project, Iberdrola recently inaugurated the Vacaria solar plant, one of two 50kW solar farms on Fernando de Noronha.

The two solar farms are designed to supply power exclusively to electric vehicles on the island, with any surplus energy to be fed into the distribution grid.

Earlier this week, Iberdrola completed the first phase of construction works at its Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in France.

The company has installed 65% of the 500MW facility’s piles and 40% of its offshore wind platforms as part of the first phase.

Iberdrola said that the piles and offshore wind platforms were manufactured by Windar in Avilés and Navantia in Fene.

A total of 124 piles have also been installed to anchor a substation and 40 of the 62 wind turbines to the seabed.