Costa Del Sol  

Large scale solar plants are starting to appear more regularly now, with a 116 MW plant planned for Portugal.

A plan to build the world's biggest solar energy power station, covering about 250 hectares and capable of sustaining 130,000 households, has been unveiled in Portugal.

The park would be visible from space, according to a spokesman for the owners of the site at an abandoned pyrite mine near the town of Beja, in the southern Alentejo region.

With a potential output of 116 megawatts, the new station would be several times the size of what is now the world's largest solar energy plant. The output would be fed into the Portuguese electricity grid at a government-set price.

A consortium of mainly German companies plans to erect 116 hexagonal clusters of solar panels. A German manufacturer of solar panels has said it also plans to build a factory at the site, bringing 250 permanent jobs to one of the poorest regions of Europe.