The dusty terrain has been levelled by tractors and rammed with ranks of metal rods. They will soon support thousands of solar panels, rotated by mini-motors being screwed on by construction workers in 35C heat.
“Setting up a solar plant is ultimately like building a factory in the countryside,” says Miguel de la Rosa, an engineering chief for project owner Zelestra, as cable reels and crates of electrical gear imported from China sit in the dirt, ready for connection to the power grid early next year.
The project in Belinchón, a municipality 50km south of Madrid, is another tract of sun-baked Spain now blanketed by rectangles of black silicon, but it may also be the final echo of an era of breakneck growth.