Renewable Energy in Pamplona and Navarra

My friend Chris outside of the Biomass plant

in Navarra.

Three of the many solar panels in a solar field

outside of Pamplona.

Some of the windmills from the wind farm

outside of Pamplona.

A video where you can kind of see how loud

and powerful the windmills are.

Since my program consisted of all engineers we spent a lot of time learning about engineering issues related to Spain. Renewable energy is one of the topics we learned about and while it is not unique to Spain, Spain and especially Navarra Spain, have shown leadership in this area. Outside of Pamplona is the largest biomass energy plant in southern Europe. We got the opportunity to visit this plant and it was fun to see. This plant takes straw/hay and burns them to create heat that can turn turbines and create electricity. They also have a number of solar fields that can take advantage of energy from the sun to provide electricity. One of the coolest things that I did in Spain was being able to go to a wind farm. Windmills are found throughout Spain and they are really a sight to see. The windmills can vary in size from 60 to 100 ft in height and provide a large amount of energy for the city. Being in Spain, it was really cool to be in a place that really cares about the environment and doesn't limit itself to just one energy source but is open to a variety of energy sources in addition to fossil fuels.