Central & South America

The solar facility, planned to be built in the northwestern province of Salta, was awarded a 20-year PPA in the second round (Ronda 1.5) of the Argentinean program for large-scale renewable energy projects, RenovAr.

The project, Sol de Tarapacá, will be located in the municipality of Pozo Almonte, in Chile’s northern region of Tarapacá.

This new transaction is intended to support projects selected in Round 3 of Argentina’s renewable energy program for large-scale projects. The funds are expected to leverage private investments for an amount that should be nine times higher than the value of the guarantee.

The company, noting its substantial investment in U.S. research and development as well as tools, has further hinted that it may establish U.S. manufacturing for its P-Series modules.

The solar trackers made by the U.S. manufacturer will be used for the construction of the 754 MW Villanueva solar project in Torreón, in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

The seller of the two PV projects, both to be developed in the state of Minas Gerais, is Chinese-Canadian solar module manufacturer, Canadian Solar. The €95 million transaction enables the Spanish power and gas provider to make its entry into the Brazilian solar market, after it secured its first large-scale PV projects in Spain in last summer’s auction.

This year’s auction will be carried out by Mexico’s energy regulatory commission, CRE. Final results will be announced in early November.

In an interview with pv magazine, the president of the Peruvian Society of Renewable Energies, Juan Coronado, discusses the auction for solar and renewables, which the government is obliged to hold this year, and the different options large-solar has to resume its development in the Andean country. According to him, when the obstacles that are currently impeding private PPAs are eliminated, utility-scale PV projects could be conceived outside of the auction mechanism.

The 8.8 MW Celsia Solar Bolívar plant will be located in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, in the northern Department of Bolivar. It is part of the 250 MW solar project pipeline of Colombian renewable energy developer, Celsia.

The Chinese energy infrastructure developer, which is already building a transmission line in the north of the state, has planned to build several large-scale solar facilities across the region, the first of which is expected to require an investment of over US$300 million.