Largest PV plant in Americas goes online in Brazil

From pv magazine Brazil

Elera Renováveis inaugurated a 1.2 GW solar complex this week in Janaúba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The project is the largest operational PV facility in the Americas.

Prior to the commissioning of the plant, the largest operational PV project in North and South America was the Villanueva project, which consists of the 427 MW Villanueva I and 327 MW Villanueva III installations in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

Elera Renováveis said it invested BRL 4 billion ($819 million) in the Janaúba project, which consists of 20 solar parks spread across a surface of around 3,000 hectares. The Brazilian renewables developer began construction in January 2021.

In 2021, Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), approved BRL 1.47 billion of financing for 14 plants in the complex, equivalent to 72% of the total planned investment of BRL 2.04 billion.

The complex features tracking systems from US-based Nextracker.

Janaúba has one of the highest concentration of utility-scale solar projects among Brazilian municipalities. It has published a video clip to show the first images of the huge facility on its YouTube channel.