According to Siemens Energy, hydrogen is produced on site with a 1 MW electrolyzer, stored in a 1 ton tank to power a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.

From pv magazine Spain

From pv magazine Latam

The governors of 10 Argentinean provinces – the so-called “Norte Grande” group – have reached an agreement with members of the national government to build 2.5 GW of solar capacity, as part of a plan that could require an investment of up to $2.5 billion.

The regional governments said the plant will mostly serve regional energy distributors.

The 2,500 MW will be built across the provinces as follows:

Tucumán: 14.86%, 370 MW
Chaco: 14.12%, 350 MW
Currents: 13.93%, 345 MW
Missions: 13.18%, 330 MW
Salta: 10.31%, 255 MW
Santiago del Estero: 08.43%, 210 MW
La Rioja: 07.31%, 180 MW
Formosa: 06.43%, 160 MW
Catamarca: 06.18%, 155 MW
Jujuy: 05.25%, 145 MW

Technical teams from Cammesa, the company that manages the country’s wholesale electricity market, are now analyzing the proposal.

Argentina's largest PV plant is currently the Cauchari project – an operational 300 MW facility that is now being expanded to 500 MW. The country reached 1,184 MW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of March.

From pv magazine LatAm

Minera Exar has signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) to procure solar power from a 100 MW solar plant owned by Argentina-based oil supplier YPF Luz.

Minera Exar will use the electricity to partly power its lithium mining operations at Salar Cauchari-Olaroz in Jujuy province, Argentina. The company has committed to purchasing 36,000 MWh per year for a minimum of 10 years, as stated in an official announcement.

YPF Luz's Zonda solar facility, inaugurated in April, constitutes the initial phase of a larger 300 MW solar project, the subsequent stages of which remain unspecified. Minera Exar's adoption of solar energy through the Zonda solar park has enabled the launch of lithium production at Salar Cauchari-Olaroz in July.

The construction of the 100 MW Zonda solar facility was undertaken with an investment of approximately $90 million by YPF Luz. About $63.9 million of the funds were secured by issuing a green bond. Construction started in February 2022, and the plant features 170,880 bifacial panels spanning 200 hectares, with a capacity factor of 36%.

Minera Exar is a collaborative venture between Lithium Americas Corp, Ganfeng Lithium, and Jujuy Energía y Minería Sociedad del Estado (Jemse).

The broader $1 billion Cauchari-Olaroz project aims to establish an initial lithium production facility capable of producing 40,000 tons per year. Preparations are already underway for a subsequent phase to expand production capacity by an additional 20,000 tons per year.

From pv magazine LatAm

Enel Chile, operating through its Enel Green Power Chile subsidiary, has secured authorization from the National Electricity Coordinator, Chile's grid operator, to start commercial operations at its 398 MW Guanchoi solar plant.

The facility is now the largest PV plant in Chile. It features approximately 900,000 bifacial monocrystalline solar panels from an undisclosed supplier.

The array is situated in the Atacama region and is expected to generate more than 1,100 GWh of electricity per year. This energy output will be injected into the National Electric System.

From pv magazine LatAm

Argentina's Ministry of Energy has announced the results of the Renewable Energy Generation Tender RenMDI2 program. It originally planned to allocate 620 MW of generation capacity.

The ministry said it selected 98 projects totaling 633.7 MW in the procurement exercise, with 501.1 MW of PV split into 44 projects. The remaining capacity comes from a 10 MW wind farm, a 3 MW biomass project, 29.9 MW of biogas plants, 39 MW of biomass plants, and 19 small hydroelectric projects (PAH) equaling 37.5 MW.

The solar projects will be distributed throughout the provinces of Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Córdoba, Corrientes, Formosa, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, San Juan, Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero.

Winning bids will secure 15-year supply contracts with Cammesa, the company that manages the country’s wholesale electricity market.

The procurement exercise is the nation's first public tender for renewable energy since 2019. In that year, Argentina held the third round of its “RenovAr” public tender, with a minimum price of $54.22/MWh.

From pv magazine Spain

“The target spatial domain and temporal scale (at which the temporal variability of the production is to be reduced) are eligible fields, the total shares of each technology can be fixed, forced to stay above/below certain thresholds or let free to find their optimum, and the minimum production to be guaranteed can be modified,” said the scientists. “Also, an additional code is made available on the webpage to find optimum locations for new installations given that the current spatial distribution of installations is known, which might be the most useful application of the tool for the short-term decision making.”

They presented the new tool in the paper “An Action-Oriented Approach to Make the Most of the Wind and Solar Power Complementarity,” published in Earth's Future.

“The method, implemented in an open-access user-friendly and customizable tool called Climax (http://climax.inf.um.es/), has been proven here in an illustrative pilot study over pan-European regions for which the temporal variability of the monthly wind-plus-solar production is to be reduced,” the scientists said.

From pv magazine Spain

The Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infraestruturas do Alqueva (EDIA), controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture of Portugal, has launched an international tender for the construction of five floating photovoltaic plants. These plants will be located in the reservoirs of Ferreira do Alentejo, Almeidas, Pias, Penedrão, and Monte Novo.

From pv magazine Latin America

The Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) of the Chilean region of Antofagasta has approved the environmental impact study for the 862.5 MW Parque Terra Energía Renovable hybrid solar-wind project, which will consist of a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 512.5 MW and a 350 MW wind farm, to be located in the commune of Taltal in the northern province of Antofagasta.

The $750 million project, presented by Energía Eólica Paposo and approved by the SEA, is scheduled to start feeding energy into the national electrical grid in the first half of 2027. Energía Eólica Paposo is a subsidiary of AES, part of US energy company AES Corporation.

The 512.5 MW PV park will comprise more than 1.1 million panels and arranged “in chains,” each of which will be made up of 28 panels.

“In this context, the photovoltaic park will be made up of a total of 164 blocks of photovoltaic panels made up of a total of 13,117 chains mounted on support structures following a mobile N-S axis,” the project report reads.

For its part, the wind farm will have an installed capacity of 350 MW and include 50 generators of 7 MW each.

The project is expected to have a lifespan of 35 years; the construction phase is estimated to take two years, which will require a maximum of 900 workers in the construction phase, while 20 people are expected to be hired for the operation phase.

From pv magazine Latin America

In the Dominican Republic, the National Energy Commission (CNE) has granted the definitive concession to three contracts for the installation of solar parks located in different regions of the country with a total combined capacity of 148 MW.

The fact that three definitive concessions to as many plants have been granted on the same day has been judged in a statement by the CNE as “a historic milestone.”

The executive director of the CNE, Edward Veras, signed the concessions for the following companies: LCV Ecoener Solares Dominicana, to develop the Planta Solar Photovoltaica Payita 1 project; Cotoperí Solar FV, for the Cotoperí Solar I Photovoltaic Park; and Renewable Energy World Dominicus (R.E.W.D.), for the Parque Solar R.E.W.D. project.

LCV Ecoener Solares Dominicana's Planta Solar Photovoltaica Payita 1 will have a nominal capacity of 50 MW and will be located in the Payita area of the Nagua municipality in the country's northeastern María Trinidad Sánchez province.

Renewable Energy World Dominicus' Parque Solar R.E.W.D., which will also have a nominal capacity of 50 MW, will be developed in the municipality of Villa Hermosa, in the province of La Romana, east of the capital city of Santo Domingo.

The 48.06 MW Cotoperí Solar I Photovoltaic Park, built by Cotoperí Solar FV, will be located in the municipality of Guaymate, also in the province of La Romana.

From pv magazine LatAm

The Chilean National Energy Commission (CNE) has issued the details of its National and International Public Tender for the Supply of Energy and Electric Power 2023/01, which will address electricity supplies for regulated customers.

The CNE said in a statement that the planned auction will be for a total of 5,400 GWh, divided into two blocks of 1,800 GWh and 3,600 GWh each, to cover consumption from 2027 and 2028. The auction will include “important innovations” regarding the treatment of market risks and incentives for storage and non-variable renewable energies, noted the CNE. The innovations include “the segmentation of the bidding into three zonal blocks, an increase in the duration of supply contract to 20 years, the possibility of transferring the systemic costs of the short-term market, and the inclusion of a direct incentive for means of storage and generation with non-variable renewable energy sources,” it added.

Chilean Energy Minister Diego Pardow said that the division into three geographical zones will reduce risks for operators. He added that incorporating side payments for consumers helps operators mitigate risks and achieve greater flexibility in system operations. “The special consideration of flexible renewable energy sources allows us to work on strengthening the renewable energy storage pillar,” he explained.

CNE Executive Secretary Marco Antonio Mancilla said that the “measure is part of the mitigation of risks to suppliers that the initiative of the Ministry of Energy is considering and its main objective is to promote the portfolio of clean, efficient renewable generation projects and mitigate risks to which suppliers are exposed.”

The Portuguese company Metalogalva, specialized in engineering and manufacture of steel and metal structures for the photovoltaic industry, will inaugurate its first factory in the United States this week, in which it expects to invest €6 million and see sales of €80 million in 2024.

The plant, which will employ about 130 people, is located in the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

Metalogalva said in a statement that the facility would be used as a manufacturing and distribution center for MSS Steel Tubes, which produces parts for manufacturers of solar panels.

MSS Steel Tubes USA is a subsidiary of MSS Steel Tubes, owned by Metalogalva in partnership with the Brazilian group Soufer.

Founded in 1971, Metalogalva – Irmãos Silvas is the oldest company in the VigentGroup. The company is currently present in 15 countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Britain, Algeria, Ukraine, Senegal, Brazil, France, Canada, Angola and Saudi Arabia) and operates 16 industrial units in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Angola, Poland, Portugal and now in the US.

Metalogalva has annual revenue of €147 million.

Researchers from the Renewable Energies Chair at the University of Évora in Portugal have concluded in a study on floating photovoltaic systems in Portugal that the installed capacity can exceed the national goal of 7 GW, defined in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC) 2030 for PV energy in the electrical sector.

Researchers identified the region of Alentejo in south-central and southern Portugal as the area with the greatest potential as it combines water surfaces and solar resources.

The University of Évora said in a statement that even applying an 85% reduction to the total surface of water available at the national level, “the potential of floating photovoltaic solar energy systems can reach at least an estimated national capacity of 10.8 GW.”

“The analysis results from a mapping of the potential areas for floating photovoltaic solar systems applied in the national territory, establishing a relationship between the availability of solar radiation and the geographical distribution of the bodies of water in the different regions of the country,” said  Luís Fialho, a researcher at the University of Évora's Renewable Energies Chair.

The renewable energy department The information shows that the Renewable Energy Chair is currently supervising Sierra Brava, the largest European experimental plant for floating photovoltaic systems, owned by Acciona Energía, which comprises five different technologies with a total power of 1,125 MW.

From pv magazine LatAm

Argentina's government has revealed that five renewable projects, including three solar arrays, were incorporated into the national Argentine Interconnection System (SADI) in the first quarter of this year.

In a statement, it said that the projects are the Sierras de Ullum (58 MW), Sierras de Ullum B (20 MW), and Cañada Honda IV (0.71 MW) park, for a total of 78.71 MW. All three systems are located in the province of San Juan.

From pv magazine LatAm

Argentinean oil and gas supplier YPF Luz has inaugurated a 100 MW solar power plant near the town of Bella Vista, in the northern Argentinean province of San Juan, northern Argentina. The Zonda PV facility is the first phase of a 300 MW solar project that will be finalized at an unspecified later stage.

YPF Luz has invested around $90 million in the 100 MW plant. Part of this sum – $63.9 million – was raised by issuing a green bond.  Construction began in February 2022. The Zonda plant has a capacity factor of 36%, with 170,880 bifacial panels installed across 200 hectares.

The solar plant has already secured approval from Cammesa, the company that manages the country’s wholesale electricity market. It said it can begin operating the first 30 MW and “the last stages of commissioning are being completed so that it will soon begin to operate at 100%.”

The 300 MW project was selected by the national government in the first round of the RenovAr program. It was financed with funds from the Export-Import Bank of China, and a $210 million bond issued by the province of Jujuy, where it is located. Jemse owns an 80% stake in the project, with the remaining 20% split between Power China, Shanghai Electric, and Talesun.

From pv magazine LatAm

Engie Energía Chile, a subsidiary of French energy company Engie, has started operating Coya, its largest solar park in Chile. The plant is located in María Elena, Antofagasta province.

The facility consists of 369,432 PV panels equipped with a robotic cleaning system from Israeli company Ecoppia. The plant will feed power into the National Electric System (SEN), supplying energy to 73,000 homes. The company is also now constructing a 638 MWh battery storage system, the BESS Coya project.

Engie Chile CEO Rosaline Corinthien said that “by obtaining the COD for our Coya Solar Plant, the first stage of our transformation plan is closed, with solar and wind plants that already add around 800 MW of renewable energy to the system … Now begins a second stage that consists of adding new technologies to the development of projects, as is the case of storage systems.”

Engie recently connected the 88 MW Capricornio array and the 114 MW Tamaya solar plant to the SEN.

From pv magazine LatAm

Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) has allocated 120 MW of PV capacity in its latest 500 MW renewable energy auction, which was launched in December 2021. It originally preselected 345.3 MW of PV projects and accepted six bids for solar plants ranging in size from 3 MW to 50 MW.

For solar, five of the six participating developers proposed 60 MW projects. Intiyana submitted an offer of $0.049877/kWh and AMBI presented a bid of $0.049876/kWh. Imbabura Solar, Ñañapura, and Dominion offered $0.0535977/kWh, $0.05961/kWh, $0.066988/kWh, respectively. Esco As submitted a 60 MW solar project to sell power at $0.064985/kWh.

Only two of these projects were ultimately selected in the procurement exercise – Dominion's plant for $0.066988/kWh and Esco's project offer of $0.064985/kWh.

The MEM also allocated 150 MW of hydropower capacity, 200 MW of installed wind power, and 30 MW of biomass capacity. It said it will award 25-year PPAs to the wind and solar projects and 30-year deals to the hydroelectric facilities.

From pv magazine Latam

Colombia's National Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME) has announced the results of its latest auction to procure renewable energy. It has assigned a renewable energy capacity of 7.493 MW through the procurement exercise.

The total includes 5.774 MW spread across 147 solar projects. The UPME did not reveal any additional details about the projects or the final auction prices.

Projects up to 5 MW in size were able to participate in the procurement exercise. Selected developers will be granted 15-year power purchase agreements.

In the country’s first renewable energy auction, which was finalized in October 2019, the UPME allocated 2.2 GW of solar and wind capacity. The final average price was COP 95/kWh ($0.020), while the highest bid only reached COP 110.

From pv magazine LatAm

Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) has allocated 345.3 MW of solar capacity in its latest 500 MW renewable energy auction, launched in December 2021.

Although there were initially more than 30 bidders that acquired the rights to participate in the auction, at the closing of the procurement exercise there were only 10 companies that complied with the technical requirements imposed by the authorities.

For solar, five of the six participating developers proposed 60 MW projects. Intiyana submitted an offer of $0.049877/kWh and AMBI presented a price of $0.049876/kWh. Imbabura Solar, Ñañapura, and Dominion offered $0.0535977/kWh, $0.05961/kWh, $0.066988/kWh, respectively. Esco As submitted a 17.6 MW solar project to sell power at $0.064985/kWh.

The MEM also selected two hydropower projects, totaling 150 MW of capacity, with final prices ranging from $0.0455/kWh to $0.05222/kWh. Just one wind project with a capacity of 44.8 MW was selected in the auction, with a final price of $0.06063/kWh.

The MEM will award a 25-year power purchase agreement to the wind and solar projects and a 30-year deal to the hydroelectric facilities.

From pv magazine LatAm

French energy giant Engie has revealed that its 87.9 MW Capricornio solar plant in northern Chile has started commercial operations, after securing approval from Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional (CEN), the country's energy regulator. The facility includes 249,210 solar panels and trackers provided by undisclosed suppliers.

Spain's Global Energy Services began building the plant in October 2019. In November 2020, Engie said that it had completed 44% of the installation, which was then said to be a 97 MW project.

In February 2022, Engie secured approval to start operating the 114 MW Tamaya solar plant. Tamaya and Capricornio are part of the company's 2,000 MW renewable project development portfolio in Chile.

From pv magazine Latin America

Engineers from the Electronics, Control, and Signal Processing Research Institute (LEICI) at the UNLP and environmental protection company Recyclamer Pampa Argentina have developed a solar-powered robot that collects waste from water bodies and surveys hydro-environmental variables.

“The robot has the capacity to clean waste on the surface and up to 40 cm deep, in bodies of water such as rivers, lagoons, and ports,” LEICI researcher Juan Luis Rosendo said. “Macro-plastics (bottles, bags), micro-plastics, and floating hydrocarbons, which are among the main pollutants in water courses, are usually found at this depth,” he explained.

The solar panels located on the deck of the device, which resembles a small catamaran without sails, can recharge its batteries while the robot operates.

Recyclamer Pampa Argentina contributed with its experience in waste treatment and cleaning of water bodies, while LEICI automated the system.

This automation “consisted of the design, sizing, and electronic integration of a modular hardware architecture on board (speed controllers, computer, sensors, antenna, etc.), and the development of the control logic to achieve robot autonomy,” Rosendo added.”

Recyclamer Pampa Argentina aims to commercialize the robot in Latin America and the Caribbean.

From pv magazine LatAm

Engie Energía Chile, the Chilean subsidiary of French energy company Engie, has revealed plans to deploy a 638 MWh storage facility at the Coya PV plant, in Maira Elena, in Chile's northern Antofagasta region.

Chinese manufacturer Sungrow will supply batteries for the project. The storage system will be based on the company's PowerTitan liquid cooling energy storage technology.

The BESS Coya project will be the largest storage installation under development in Latin America.

“The BESS Coya project will allow clean solar energy to be delivered to the grid at night, increasing the flexibility in the dispatch of solar plants to the National Electric System, making it more efficient and providing greater security of supply,” said the executive director of Engie Energía Chile, Rosaline Corinthien.

The 181 MW Coya plant began operating in October 2021. Engie currently operates another storage system in Arica, Chile. The system, which was commissioned in 2019, is based on lithium-ion batteries and has a capacity of 2 MWh.

From pv magazine LatAm

Brazil’s transmission system operator, ISA CTEEP, has announced that the country's first large-scale battery has been connected to the grid at one of its electrical substations in Sao Paulo. The company said the battery spans approximately 5,000 square meters and relies on 180 lithium battery modules made by an undisclosed manufacturer in China.

The 30 MW/60 MWh storage system can deliver electricity for periods of two hours. It is expected to operate during the summer during times of peak electricity demand, as backup for the power grid.

The project secured approval from the Brazilian National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) just over a year ago. At the time, the investment was estimated at BRL 146 million ($27.7 million). Aneel selected the project through a research and development tender in 2016.

From pv magazine Spain

Spanish tracker manufacturer Soltec and Enel Green Power España, the Spanish subsidiary of Italy's Enel Green Power (EGP), have announced plans to jointly build a solar tracker factory in the warehouses and facilities of a decommissioned thermal power plant in Teruel, in the province of Aragón, eastern Spain..

The thermal power plant is owned by Spanish energy supplier Endesa, which is a unit of EGP's parent company, Enel.

“It will allow us to supply solar tracker suppliers to the Andorra project,” said Soltec CEO Raúl Morales. “Within the existing macroeconomic and geopolitical context, it is more necessary than ever to locate production centers within the European Union. Developing our production center near project sites is a decision aligned with our strategy of circular economy and socio-economic excellence.”

Enel is also working with Italian engineering specialist Comal to set up a solar tracker factory in Montalto di Castro, in the province of Viterbo, central Italy. The Tracker Sun Hunter factory will be cover more than 30,000 square meters at the Montalto di Castro power plant, which is owned by Enel, but is no longer used for energy generation.