Enel green energy, a business line of Enel Colombia, installed the first of the 244,800 panels with which they have the Fundación solar park, which has dimensions of 2,278 mm x 1,134 mm x 30 mm, and an individual capacity of 540 peak watts (Wp). . This progress is added to the implementation of other infrastructures, such as the arrival of the transformer to the project from China and the start of construction of the high voltage line and the Caraballo booster substation, indicated the company’s directives.
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According to Eugenio Calderón, manager of Enel Green Power Colombia and Central America, «With an investment of close to 109 million dollars, the Fundación solar park will generate around 227 GWh/year between 2023 and 2037. This project will allow us to continue enabling progress with sustainable energy, because in addition to contributing to the Colombia’s energy transition, we are contributing to the social, economic and environmental development of Magdalena. Only to date we have employed close to 580 people during the different construction phases, of which around 300 belong to the region”.
The automatically installed panel has state-of-the-art technology: it is bifacial, which allows it to absorb energy on both sides, and it is located on a system of metal structures, called a tracker, which allows it to rotate and orient itself with the movement of the sun to capture its rays throughout the day and thus optimize the energy generation process.
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Fundación, which was one of the 11 projects awarded in the third auction of long-term contracts convened by the Ministry of Mines and Energy in 2021, It is being built on a 237-hectare piece of land, divided into 18 subfields, and will have an installed capacity of 132.2 megawatts in direct current (MWdc).
According to the directives of Enel Power, within the progress of the project, the arrival of the 80-ton transformer stands out, which for around 40 days was in transit from the port of Shanghai in China, to Pivijay, Magdalena, which will allow the substation to be energized Caraballo elevator (also in solar works), since it has the function of receiving the power generated by the panels and raising the level from medium to high voltage, specifically to 110 kilovolts (kW).
Likewise, the laying of conductors on the 110 kW high-voltage line recently began, which will have a length of 6 km of aerial section and 0.6 km underground.
The construction of this infrastructure is of great importance to guarantee the operation of the solar park, since it will transport the energy produced by the panels from the Caraballo Substation to the Fundación interconnection electrical substation, so that it can be injected into the National Interconnected System (SIN).