Along Albania's southwestern coastline, the sun shines brightly, warming the 234,828 new solar panels at the Karavasta power station, a site that will be connected to the country’s energy grid in the coming weeks. "By European standards, it's a large-scale plant" says Luca Anthouard, an engineer on the project. In less than two years, the French-owned Voltalia company has built the largest solar-powered plant in the Western Balkans, built on 200 hectares of land and eventually capable of powering hundreds of thousands of homes in a country of just 2.8 million people. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES