F&S Solar Concept completes 58 MW solar project in the Dominican Republic

F&S Solar has announced the opening of the largest solar power plant in the Caribbean, the 58 MW Montecristi solar park. Located in the north-west of the Dominican Republic, near the Haitian border, the park spans an area of 2 million square meters and comprises 215,000 modules.

Construction of the plant took six months. The power generated will be fed into the island's high-voltage grid via inverters and a newly-built substation, and will provide clean energy for more than 50,000 households through a fixed-price electricity supply contract between the state energy supplier and the solar park operator lasting 20 years that is already below the current electricity market price.

The Montecristi solar park is projected to save around 108,000 tons of CO₂ per year. The power plant was developed, planned and built by the F&S Solar, which is based in Euskirchen, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The solar project developer established its own office in the Dominican Republic in 2016.

F&S Solar is also an investor in the project and has contributed 35% of the equity. The remaining 65% was invested by Blue Elephant Energy AG (BEE), a longstanding close financial partner of F&S solar. Debt financing was provided by European development banks, led by the DEG in Cologne, a wholly owned subsidiary of KfW Bankengruppe. Also involved are the Dutch FMO and the Belgian BIO.

In addition, DEG examined and supervised the entire project in accordance with the World Bank's environmental and social standards. With a total investment of US$87 million, the project is one of the leading German investments in the Caribbean.

The manufacturer Astronergy supplied the modules for the solar park, while the SMA inverters and substructure came from the Bavarian specialist Schletter. For cabling work, F&S Solar selected another German partner, Oliver Oepen GmbH. The substation was built by ABB.