Irish company WElink Group has opened the largest solar farm in Portugal, which cost 170 million euros (about US$196.4 million) and has a capacity of 219 MW, the Renewables Now website reports.

The Solara4 farm, in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, is a joint project of WElink Group and state-owned China Triumph International Engineering Co. Ltd (CTIEC), according to a report posted on the website on Monday.

The farm was opened last Saturday, the report says.

It says Solara4 covers 320 ha and consists of 661,500 panels which can produce 382 GW of electricity an hour, enough for 200,000 households.

The farm is expected to begin feeding electricity to the Portuguese national grid this month, the Renewables Now website quotes the director of WElink Group projects on the Iberian Peninsula, Hugo Paz, as saying.

Separately, PV Magazine reports that the parent company of CTIEC, China National Building Materials Co. Ltd, was the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, and that Jetion Solar (China) Co. Ltd supplied the solar panels.