ALBA (synchrotron)

ALBA is a synchrotron radiation facility in Cerdanyola del Vallès near Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is constructed and operated by the CELLS (Consortium for the Exploitation of the Synchrotron Light Laboratory) consortium, and co-financed by the Spanish and Catalan governments.

After nearly ten years of planning and design work by the Spanish scientific community, the project was approved in 2002 by the Spanish and the Catalan governments. After scientific workshops and meetings with prospective users, the facility was redesigned in 2004, and in 2006 construction started. The laboratory was officially opened for experiments on 7 beamlines in March 2010.