Sant Fost de Campsentelles, a small Spanish town located in the Vallès Oriental, just north of Barcelona, is the first in Europe to be entirely lit by solar power.
The town of aproximately 7000 inhabitants has erected 13 000 square meters of solar panelling and 2300 energy efficient lightbulbs with the help of financing from an energy institute, L’Institut de Diversification Estalvi de l’ Energia. The total cost of the project to light the town solely with solar-powered energy is eight million euros, with 2.5 million going towards the lightbulbs. The mayor of San Fost de Campsentelles, Joan Gasso, believes the project will pay for itself within twenty-five years and hopes the town has played a part in improving the planet.
Solar cells, called “photovoltaic” or “photoelectric” cells are what convert sunlight directly into energy. They consist of semiconducting material that absorbs the sunlight. The solar energy knocks the electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through material to produce electricity. In a sunny climate, you can get enough power to run a one-hundred-watt light bulb from just one square metre of solar panelling.
Many are advocating the use of this solar-powered energy as an alternative energy source to unsustainable fossil fuels. Solar power is pollution-free during use, and it is available in enormous quantities. The amount of solar energy intercepted by the Earth every minute is greater than the amount of energy the world uses in fossil fuels each year. Additionally, solar-powered facilities can operate relatively autonomously, with little maintenance, once they have been set up. Facilities can operate with little maintenance or intervention after initial setup, and the operating costs are low compared to existing power technologies. However, large surfaces of land are required to amass enough photovoltaic cells.
Solar-powered initiatives are popping up all over the globe with projects in the US, Japan, India and Australia and Africa. The American town of Dania, Florida will soon follow in Sant Fost de Campsentelles’s footsteps. St. Louis Park, a few miles west of Minneapolis, may be the first in the country to provide solar-powered wireless internet to its residents. Meanwhile, Uganda is in the process of building a solar-powered airport.
This article was published Thursday, February 22, 2007.
