With 432 MW installed, the country has just surpassed the U.S. whose generated solar thermal power amount 422 MW, according to a note by the professional association Protermosolar.
Thanks to the start of functioning of La Florida solar thermal park in the beginning of July 2010, it was possible the increase in power allowing reaching the leading position previously held by the U.S. - Elpais.com reports. The over 430 megawatts (MW) produced are equal the power generated by a nuclear plant.

La Florida solar thermal park is located in Alvarado (province of Badajoz) and has a total a capacity of 50MW. Eleven generation plants are already functioning, and about twenty are still under construction. La Florida is an example of the efforts of Spain in solar thermal energy: it belongs to the Aragonese group Samca Renovelables, a subsidiary of Caja Madrid, able to fund very large programs.

In less than one year an additional power of about 600 MW may be connected to the network It is actually forecast that all the plants listed in the register should reach nearly 2,500 MW power by 2013.

Besides La Florida, the plants currently operating in Spain are PS10 (11 MW), PS 20 (20 MW), Andasol 1 (50 MW), Puertollano (50 MW), Puerto Errado (1.4 MW), La Risca (50 MW), Andasol 2 (50 MW), Solnova 1 (50 MW), Extresol 1 (50 MW) and Solnova 3 (50 MW).

Photo: A view of PS10 solar thermal plant