The Urrá Public Services Company and the Luxpower Consortium have announced the commencement of the Urrá 25MW solar park project in Colombia, exclusively deploying Trina Solar Vertex 600W+ ultra-high power modules and TrinaTracker smart tracking solutions, including Vanguard 2P trackers, a SuperTrack smart control system and SCADA.
The project is located in the department of Córdoba in the north of the country and will be connected to the National Transmission System (STN), to deliver power to the Colombian energy market via a 3.5 km long 34.5KWh sub-transmission line to the Urrá 110kW substation.
Once operational, the solar park is expected to produce the annual equivalent of the energy consumption of approximately 250,000 homes and will eliminate 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The investment for the project is 17.6 million US dollars, involving the deployment of 37,536 Vertex bifacial modules with power ranging between 640W and 650W. The trackers selected for the project are the TrinaTracker Vanguard 2P model, offering high stability and featuring a multidrive system which provides safety against high wind loads and also allows the installation of up to 102 modules per tracker.
Camilo Cogollo, commercial director at Luxim, commented: “We have always wanted to operate a highly efficient solar project which differentiates us as a company in terms of quality. The trackers will allow us to follow solar radiation in order to make the most of any climate fluctuations that may arise.”
Cogollo continued: “It has always been the wish of our presidency to secure the services and permanent accompaniment of Trina Solar. As a company, Luxim shares the same passion as Trina for continuous improvement, innovation and cleaner and smarter energy solutions, which significantly reduce impact on the environment and can encourage the development of a new generation of Colombians with a firm grasp of ecology.”
Alvaro García-Maltrás, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean for Trina Solar, highlighted the importance of optimizing and capturing data to increase the generating capacity of solar farms with smart systems: “For us it is a pleasure to be able to deliver integrated solutions to the renewable energy matrix of Colombia and the entire region. We know that the new challenges for the industry involve the digitization of processes that reduce face-to-face activities in the operation and maintenance of a plant, so including artificial intelligence in processes, digitizing operations through the cloud, and real-time data analytics is essential, and in this we can proudly say that TrinaTracker is setting the trend for the market”.
Juan González, sales manager for TrinaTracker in Latin America and the Caribbean, explained: “The design of our trackers maximizes the energy performance of bifacial modules, since the exclusive SuperTrack intelligent control system will adjust to the best tracking angle in real time, taking into consideration both diffuse and direct radiation through an intelligent algorithm. In addition, the Urrá solar plant is located in a mountainous area, so SuperTrack will be able to independently control each row of trackers, thus mitigating energy loss caused by shadows from row to row.”
The Urrá project goes hand in hand with the initiative of the Colombian government to diversify its energy matrix and represents another step on the path towards the country’s ultimate energy transition. Data from the Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME), within the Ministry of Mines and Energy, suggests that by 2030 about 10% of energy consumed in Colombia will come from photovoltaic or solar projects.