Elecnor has been awarded the construction of a new solar farm in the Brazilian city of Pirapora, in Minas Gerais. Promoted by Atlas Renewable Energy, a company specialising in renewable energy, the Lar do Sol-Casablanca photovoltaic solar complex will have an installed capacity of 359 MWp, will produce enough energy to supply a city of 1.4 million inhabitants and will be funded by BID Invest and DNB Banks involving a sum of USD150 million.
In accordance with the contract, Elecnor will be in charge of engineering, supply, services and start-up of the solar farm and the step-up substation, the power transmission line and the incoming line in a substation that already exists.
This is a large-scale project, as the new farm will cover an area of approximately 690 hectares and will use 676,000 bifacial modules, panels that capture sunlight on both sides. The step-up substation (34.5/345KV), necessary to transform the voltage, will have two 330 MVA transformers, while the power transmission line between the collector substation and the bay connection will be 0.5 km long and carry 345 kV, with an operating capacity of at least 600 MVA.
Work on this project, which will create over 800 direct jobs, has already begun.