Colombian oil company to power fossil fuel extraction with 50 MW of solar

From pv magazine Latam.

Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol has announced plans for a 50 MW solar park which will be owned by its Cenit hydrocarbon transportation and logistics subsidiary.

The fossil fuel company said the facility will be in the Colombian municipality of Castilla La Nueva, in the department of Meta, and will generate clean electricity for the San Fernando and Apiay pumping stations as well as oil fields in Castilla, Chichimene and Apiay, in the Eastern Plains.

Construction of the 46ha solar plant, which will feature more than 100,000 panels, will begin in the middle of the year with commercial operation slated for December. At that point, the facility will be the largest self-consumption power plant developed in the country, more than twice the size of the 20.4 MW Solar Castilla Park finalized by Ecopetrol in October.

The oil business, formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos, announced plans to invest in solar energy in August 2018. pv magazine in May reported on the 700 MW Sebastopol PV project approved by the Colombian authorities. That facility, in the town of Cimitarra in the Santander department, is being developed by Sebastosol SAS ESP and is likely to supply power to the Sebastopol refinery in Cimitarra belonging to Ecopetrol.