The ALBA Synchrotron is a fundamental pillar of science, for more than 10 years serving a large community of academic and industrial users in Spain and Europe.

To keep the facilities at the forefront and help in the evolution of science and technology, ALBA has started its renovation project to transform the ALBA Synchrotron into a 4^th generation light source: ALBA II.

ALBA II will provide a wide range of new analytical tools, innovative methodologies and improved data management and analysis.

The new ALBA II will go one step further, offering results that are now unreachable in terms of resolution or detection levels.

It is a very cost-efficient project as it maintains the existing infrastructure, the injection system and the beamlines.

The design was initiated on December 2020 and the entire project is awaiting full funding. "Enabling ALBA II technologies" is the first step, a project with Next Generation EU funds (7.5 million euros), to create prototypes of the new accelerator systems and a nanopositioning laboratory. The 14th ALBA beamline, 3Sbar, started in 2022 and also awarded with Next Generation EU funds, is the first beamline fully optimized for ALBA II.

The ALBA II upgrade includes:

1. The replacement of the Accelerators
   
2. The upgrade of the Beamlines
   
3. The construction of new extra-long beamlines and two additional beamlines
1. CORUS (Cryo nano-scanning X-ray Fluorescence and Spectroscopy beamline)
2. CODI (Coherent Diffraction Imaging beamline)
3. CALIMA (BioSAXS beamline)
4. MSPD-2 (Materials Science and Powder diffraction), after the relocation and upgrade of the beamline
   
4. The increase of the data infrastructure
   
5. The construction of new buildings and laboratories

ALBA II will bring a substantial increase in:

• Brilliance
• Resolution
• Coherence
• Data analysis

Differences in the photons flux (left, ALBA; right, ALBA II).