Spain will now house the new La Florida solar plant which promises a solar output to 432MW, which is more than USA’s output of 422MW. In this plant, sunlight will be reflected off a parabolic mirror in a trough, on to a tube filled with liquid.

The now heated liquid is consequently used to heat steam in order to run the turbines. The mirror makes rounds during at day time following the sun's movement.

A distance of 550,000 square metres is covered by the solar farm which creates around 50MW of power. Plans are that 600MW more power will be generated by next year and that by 2013 it will reach 2,500MW.

Solar energy had made up for 2.8 per cent of the demand last year, out of a total of 12.9 per cent for all kinds of renewable energy. The renewable share was planned to be increased to 22.7 per cent by the year 2020, by the Madrid government. The aim was to be slightly ahead of the EU targets.

Currently, Spain is the fourth largest manufacturer of solar power globally and has become an expensive earner of both solar and wind power technology exports.