Atlas switches on 67.1 MW solar plant in eastern Brazil

Atlas Renewable Energy has announced its 67.1 MW São Pedro solar complex has been officially commissioned.

The company said the plant, in Bom Jesus da Lapa in Bahia state, is its first operational project in Brazil. São Pedro was awarded a 20-year PPA in the energy auction held by the Brazilian government in 2015.

“The financing of the plant was secured through the Banco do Nordeste (BNB), supported by an equivalent sum of commercial bank guarantees from BTG Pactual, Banco ABC Brasil and Banco Bradesco,” said Atlas in a press release. Funding from Brazilian development banks such as the BNDES or BNB is being granted to projects complying with local content requirements.

The São Pedro project, according to Atlas’ website, was built with solar modules from Chinese manufacturer Jinko – which supplied its JKM325PP-72V (325W)/JKM330PP-72V (330 W) product – and from Chinese-Canadian company Canadian Solar, which supplied CS6U – P – 325/330 W panels from its module factory in Sorocaba, in São Paulo state, which opened in October 2016.

Some 204,120 modules were installed at the project, which uses LV5 inverters from U.S. company General Electric.

Atlas Renewable Energy’s Brazilian solar project portfolio includes three projects under construction and development, namely Juazeiro and Sertão Solar in the state of Bahia and Sol do Futuro, in Ceará. In Latin America, the company – owned by British fund Actis – also owns and operates two solar plants in Uruguay – Del Litoral (17 MW) and Naranjal (59 MW) – and two in Chile, at Javiera (69.5 MW), which was the first private PPA in the region; and Quilapilún (110 MW).

Atlas has an investment plan of around $525 million for solar projects in Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay, where it aims to deploy around 1.5 GW in the medium term.