Feb 19 2010
Spanish T-Solar and Solarpack have been awarded the Peruvian Government's contract for the annual supply of 173 GWh of PV energy over a period of 20 years. T-Solar's installed capacity makes it one of the biggest photovoltaic (PV) power generators in the world, and Solarpack is a pioneer in the development, construction and maintenance of photovoltaic projects.
To supply the 173 GWh, T-Solar and Solarpack will be jointly developing four 20-MW photovoltaic plants. Two of these will be developed and run by T-Solar (Majes Solar 20T and Repartición Solar 20T) and the other two (Tacna Solar 20T and Panamericana Solar 20TS) by SolarPack in consortium with T-Solar.
The four PV plants must be in operation before 30th June 2012. They will be located in the south of Peru, in the regions of Tacna, Arequipa and Moquegua, which have a high average annual irradiation of 2,300 KWh/m2.
According to the resolution of this first tender for power supply using renewable energy resources (RER), the electricity generated by the four plants will be bought by the national grid system (SEIN) in Peru at a guaranteed price over 20 years.
The award of the PV power tendered in this auction is an important operation for T-Solar in the Americas. According to T-Solar's CEO, Juan Laso, the company wanted to participate in this process because "the project looks good, as there is high solar irradiation in these areas and the conditions in Peru are attractive, an investment-grade country with political and economic stability."Juan Laso says that this award "increases T-Solar's backlog under development, which now comprises over 650 MW".
This contract enables Solarpack to consolidate its operations in South America, where the company is already one of the biggest developers specialising in photovoltaic (PV) solar energy. From its subsidiary in Chile, Solarpack is spearheading the implementation of projects such as the "Calama Solar 1" plant, which is the first multi-megawatt solar plant with an environmental licence in the entire South-American continent. Pablo Burgos, Solarpack's general manager, states that "our upfront, innovative wager on this market is bearing fruit even earlier than we expected."