Portugal has started work on what will be the world's biggest solar power plant - a 52,000 photovoltaic module, 11-megawatt facility covering a 60-hectare south-facing hillside in the southern Alentejo region.

According to the BBC, the cost of the monster 'leccy factory is €58m - or £40m in old money - for which the Portuguese will get enough juice for 8,000 homes.

Catavento's Piero Dal Maso declared: "The Serpa solar power project, along with other renewable energy initiatives, helps lay the foundation for Portugal's energy future. The project takes maximum advantage of the excellent environmental conditions in Portugal for solar power."

However, and as many of you might have spotted, supplying green juice to just 8,000 homes will hardly allow Portugal to tell OPEC to take a running jump. Dal Maso admitted: "It is a drop, but we think in Portugal that it will make sense to use renewables to get away from oil issues and the dependency on energy from outside which we have in Portugal."

The plant will, once completed, have another green string to its bow: the solar panels will be mounted two metres off the ground, allowing sheep to graze the grass below in delicious shade. ®

Related stories

• Rwanda fires up Africa's 'biggest' solar plant (8 June 2007)
• Canada announces monster solar plant (27 April 2007)
• Tesco USA to deploy 'world's biggest' solar roof (19 January 2007)
• UK's biggest wind farm is go (9 October 2006)
• New tidal generator could mean cheaper electricity (19 June 2006)
• NASA's green science budget slashed and burned (12 June 2006)
• IT outfit neutralises carbon emissions (12 June 2006)
• Computer energy use under scrutiny (27 April 2006)
• Europeans don't much like nuclear energy (25 January 2006)
• Analysis Nuclear fusion: power to the people? (6 July 2005)