The Villafranca glass factory invests 5.5 million to install solar panels.

The BA Group will build the largest photovoltaic solar plant in Spain and one of the largest in Europe at its factory in Villafranca de los Barros (Badajoz).

The Portuguese group Barbosa & Almeida (BA) is investing 5.5 million euros in the Villafranca glass factory for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of its 85,000 square metre plant, which will result in a 12% reduction in its energy bill. This will make it one of the largest producers of electricity for its own use, not only in the region but also in Spain and Europe, with a self-consumption photovoltaic plant. An initiative to reduce its environmental footprint.

This project is designed by the Extremaduran consultancy firm Arram and will make its Villafranca plant one of the largest in Europe in terms of self-consumption of electricity.

Work will begin this summer and the plant will start generating energy in 2020. Thanks to this project, in addition to significantly reducing its energy bill, it will stop emitting more than 5,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, another example of the company's involvement in sustainable energy development; it has been before in glass recycling and will be even more so with the new photovoltaic plant.

The big figures of this initiative are completed with the total power of the new photovoltaic plant, which will be 8 megawatts (MW). Thanks to this power, the panels that will cover practically the entire roof of the factory, 80%, will generate energy equivalent to the electricity consumed by 1,700 homes.

The BA Group is one of the world leaders in the field of glass container manufacturing, with 12 factories located in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. It employs 3,800 people. In 2018 it had a turnover of more than 850 million euros, 300 million of which were generated by the Spanish company, whose registered office and tax domicile is in Villafranca de los Barros.