Power and automation technology leader ABB has signed a supply deal with the Larach family of Honduras to deliver inverter solutions to a new 146.4 MW solar project in the Central American country.
The contract with ABB includes the supply of 52 of the company's 2 MW PVS800-IS inverter stations, each containing two PVS800 central inverters. ABB will also deliver respective medium voltage (MV) stations and ring main units (RMU) to ensure the electric balance of the plant. A SCADA system for the plants monitoring and control will also be supplied, along with string monitoring junction boxes.
ABB will also provide training and commissioning to local installers during the first few years of the project, which is located near to the Honduran city of Nacaome, close to the Pacific coastline. Delivery of materials has commenced this month, with a distribution target of March 2015 planned.
The 146.4 MW size of the project makes it the largest in Central America and one of the largest in the entire Latin America region. There are to be two neighboring sites Nacaome and Valle that will feed solar power into the grid via a shared high voltage station. Each sites grid connection is rated at 50 MW alternative current.
"The high efficiency, reliability and easy-to-maintain industrial design or our inverters, as well as the wide offering of other products for the solar industry, are the key success factors for ABB PVS800 central inverters," said ABB's country and discrete automation and motion division manager for Central America and the Caribbean, Blas Gonzalez. "We are developing our service organization in the region to meet the increasing needs for solar business as I expect more projects to come."
Gonzalez added that ABB calculates some 1.5 GW of solar PV capacity will be installed in Central America over the next six years as the region turns increasingly to the opportunities offered by renewable power.
"This means great opportunities for using solar energy in large-scale power plants as well as in smaller systems on commercial and industrial building in these countries," he said. The inverter stations used the PVS800-IS is rated between 1.75 MW and 2 MW, and has been specifically designed for multi-megawatt plants. The station uses two 875 kW or 1 MW PVS800 central inverters.
Having established operations in the region in 1996, ABB now has an office in Panama that offers sales, technical expertise and service to customers, while the company also has local operations in Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
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