Ecuador seeks developers of 200MW solar plant

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Players from Germany, Denmark, Spain, Canada, China and others were briefed this week on the upcoming tender for a 200MW PV project and a 110MW wind duo (Credit: CELEC)

Ecuadorian solar is poised for a major boost under government plans to tender for a utility-scale installation in the country’s west.

A crowd of 45 foreign firms attended this week's presentation of a public process to choose a developer for a 200MW PV plant in the Manabí province, by the Pacific Ocean.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Players from Germany, Denmark, Spain, Canada, China, South Korea, Japan, the US, Colombia and Chile were briefed on the upcoming tender, set to formally launch on 28 August.

The El Aromo solar project will be tendered alongside a 110MW wind power duo. The PV and wind schemes will each take up US$200 million of a US$400 million total budget.

According to Ecuador’s state-owned utility CELEC, the project will be built at a site where irradiation reaches a yearly 140kWh per square metre.

El Aromo, CELEC explained, will be linked to the grid via a 230kV substation of San Juan de Manta.

The plant will stand near grounds initially meant to host a major oil refinery project, which descended into liquidation earlier this year, amid media reports of cost overruns.

Solar moves of hydro-reliant Latin America

Once operational, the El Aromo solar is expected to produce 280GWh per year, enough to cover 22% of power demand in Manabí province. Its capacity factor will sit at 15.9%, CELEC said.

According to estimates from the utility, the 200MW solar project will save Ecuador annual 128,000 CO2 tonnes, plus US$9 million that would otherwise be spent every year on fuel-based generation.

El Aromo will also create synergies with Ecuador’s hydropower, CELEC added, noting the potential to prop up generation when the dry season hits the rivers of the Amazon basin.

Should it be delivered with the current 200MW size, the project would mark a significant scale-up for Ecuador’s dormant solar ecosystem.

IRENA estimates the Andean state was home to 26MW in installed PV capacity in 2018, while PV generation remained, according to government data, low last year. 

At 38.08GWh, solar produced the smallest output (0.13%) of all Ecuadorian energy sources last year, behind hydropower’s 20,684.8GWh (70.73%) but also wind’s 80.26GW (0.27%).

The use of non-hydro renewables to limit drought-driven shortages is a strategy also followed by neighbour Colombia, which runs auctions open to solar specifically with this aim.

Read Next

June 11, 2025
A new report has claimed that creating a Sydney renewable energy zone (REZ) in New South Wales, Australia, could generate up to 21GW of renewable energy from rooftop solar PV.
June 11, 2025
Venn Energy, a renewable energy developer, has seen its 500MW Cooba solar-plus-storage site selected for inclusion in Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program (DFP) scheme in Australia.
June 10, 2025
A group of Republican Congress members penned an open letter on Friday urging the US Senate to moderate proposed changes to renewable energy manufacturing and deployment support.
Premium
June 10, 2025
PV Tech Premium spoke with Geoffrey Lehv of kWh Analytics about cybersecurity, AI and solar project underperformance.
June 10, 2025
Australia’s Queensland government has confirmed an AU$2.4 billion investment in the CopperString transmission project, aiming to extend the National Electricity Market (NEM) to the North West Minerals Province.
June 9, 2025
Sonnedix has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Renfe to supply 420GWh of renewable energy annually for its commercial operations.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
June 17, 2025
Napa, USA
Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
July 2, 2025
Bangkok, Thailand