The project is expected to be in operation in July 2023 and will supply 25MW to the National Interconnected System.
The URRÁ Public Services Company and the Luxpower Consortium announced the start of the Urrá 25MW Solar Park project, all powered by Trina Solar Vertex 600W+ ultra-high power modules and smart tracking solutions (including Vanguard 2P trackers, SuperTrack smart control system, and SCADA), located in the department of Córdoba in Colombia, which will be connected to the National Transmission System (STN) to deliver its generation to the Colombian Energy Market through a 3.5 km long 34.5KWh sub-transmission line to the URRÁ 110kW Substation.
Being the first Utility project of Urrá in the region, “Parque Urrá 25MW” will feature both Trina Solar's Vertex PV modules and TrinaTracker's intelligent tracking solution. The plant will be optimized with the innovative Supertrack system, an algorithm that allows energy to be maximized from 3% to 8% more, compared to traditional algorithms and the Trina SmartCloud SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) software.
Understanding that the average consumption of a Colombian home is equivalent, according to data from the First Balance of Useful Energy for Colombia, to 157kWh per year, the Urrá Solar Park expects to annually produce energy equivalent to the consumption of approximately 250,000 homes and will mitigate the emission of 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Today this represents the planting of more than 11,272 trees.
The investment for this project is 17.6 million dollars ($76,058,498,700 Colombian pesos) and will have 37,536 bifacial Vertex modules DE21GC.20 with a power ranging between 640W and 650W . While the trackers chosen for this project are the Vanguard 2P model, which due to its configuration, offers high stability, with a multidrive system that provides safety against high wind loads, and also allows the installation of up to 102 modules per tracker.
Consorcio Luxpower decided to trust Trina Solar for its project, since it is the only company capable of delivering an integrated solution that includes high-efficiency 600W+ modules with 210mm cells, and intelligent trackers that, thanks to their advanced design, allow significant savings to be generated in the Balance of System (BOS) of the plant.
Proven efficiency in any weather
The efficiency and durability of the Vanguard 2P trackers was certified by the most extensive tunnel test implemented in the solar industry, carried out by the main wind engineering consultant RWDI, which through exhaustive tests in wind tunnels managed to verify its resistance to static loads, dynamic and aeroelastic, which can guarantee its operation regardless of climatic conditions and differences in terrain.
Camilo Cogollo, commercial director at Luxim, commented “We have always wanted to offer a highly efficient solar project that differentiates us as a company with the best quality and use. The trackers allow us to efficiently follow the impact of solar radiation that arrives, following it and making the most of any climate changes that may arise.”
Regarding why to choose Trina Solar as a service provider for this project, the executive assured “It has always been a solid option of our presidency to have the services and permanent accompaniment of Trina Solar. As a company, Luxim shares the same passion as Trina Solar for continuous improvement, significantly reducing environmental impact, innovation, and cleaner and smarter energy solutions, for the sake of developing and implementing a new generation of Colombians with an ecological sense."
This will be the first Colombian project to install TrinaTracker trackers, which stands out for the use of the SuperTrack tracking system which, through the use of artificial intelligence, maximizes generation with all types of radiation: direct, diffuse, and reflected, to optimize the bifaciality of the modules, in addition to avoiding the shading that the different topographies generate in the project.
According to Luxim's commercial director, the implementation of the Trina Tracker technology and its modules allows them to “provide security, quality, and reliability to the project, in accordance with the demands proposed by the Colombian Government. The high reliability, the performance, and above all, the support, help us to comply in less time”.
Alvaro García-Maltrás, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean at Trina Solar, highlights the importance of optimizing and capturing data to increase the generating capacity of wind 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 of the industry go towards the digitization of processes that help 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 in 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 the bifacial modules, since its exclusive SuperTrack intelligent control system will adjust 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 Project awarded by the company Urra S.A. E.S.P. goes hand in hand with the initiative of the Colombian government to advance in the purpose of diversifying its energy matrix. The Urrá Solar Park represents one more step on the path towards energy transition, and a contribution to the production of increasingly clean energy in our country. According to data from the Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, it is estimated that by 2030 about 10% of energy consumption in Colombia will come from photovoltaic or solar projects.
