Net metering in Dominican Republic shows results

Share

A 267 kWp turnkey project built by Sofos Dominicana, a subsidiary of Spanish group Sofos Energia, has become the latest photovoltaic plant to begin operation in the Dominican Republic.

The country boasts the recently inaugurated 1.5 MW plant built at the Cibao International Airport — the largest photovoltaic project in the country and one of the few megawatt scale installations in the Caribbean.

The airport plant operates under the Dominican Republic's net metering scheme, which went into effect in June 2011. Commercial and residential photovoltaic projects under the program currently account for about 6 MW in the country, according to Enrique Ramirez, president of the country's National Energy Commission.

The plant has been running since April and the country has just brought a smaller project online in Santo Domingo.

Sofos Dominicana, a subsidiary of Spanish group Sofos Energia, built the $700,000 266.56 kWp turnkey plant atop the Hotel Dominican Fiesta in the capital city. The plant employs 1,088 245 Wp polycrystaline panels made by Germany's Schüco and 34 7 kW SMA inverters.

The Dominican Republic, along with Mexico, is one of the Latin American countries with the highest volume of photovoltaic net metering. In Mexico, more than 10 MW have been installed under the country's program.

The Cibao International Airport project provides the facility, located in Santiago de los Caballeros — the country's second largest city — with about 40% of its energy needs.

Trace designed the plant as a turnkey project, according to the company's president, Jose Hernandez.

Trace installed three GT500 MVX grid tie solar inverters from French firm Schneider Electric and 5,880 SolarWorld monocrystalline modules, which are mounted on fixed SolarWorld structures. Swiss company Carlo Gavazzi provided the monitoring system for the plant.

Ramirez has said that another plant of 800 kW will soon begin operation on the premises of a plastics company.

Megawatt scale plants remain scarce in the Caribbean, although Cuba recently connected a solar plant of 1 MW to its grid.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Mercedes-Benz testing new solar paint

02 December 2024 Mercedes-Benz said it is now evaluating a 20%-efficient, non-silicon photovoltaic coating that is significantly cheaper than conventional solar module...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.