Photovoltaic Power Stations - History

History

The first 1 MWp solar park was built by Arco Solar at Lugo near Hesperia, California at the end of 1982, followed in 1984 by a 5.2 MWp installation in Carrizo Plain. Both have since been decommissioned, though Carrizo Plain is the site for several large plants now being constructed or planned. The next stage followed the 2004 revisions, to the feed-in tariffs in Germany when a substantial volume of solar parks were constructed.

Several hundred installations over 1 MWp have been since been installed in Germany, of which more than 50 are over 10 MWp. With its introduction of feed-in tariffs in 2008, Spain became briefly the largest market, with some 60 solar parks over 10 MW, but these incentives have since been withdrawn. The USA, China India, France, Canada, and Italy, amongst others, have also become major markets as shown on the list of photovoltaic power stations.

The largest solar parks currently operating have capacities between 200 and 300 MWp. The largest sites under construction have capacities of hundreds of MWp and projects at a scale of 1 GWp are being planned. Some solar parks that are notable in the global or regional context are listed in this article.

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