56 MW solar plant in Colombia: Colombian petroleum company Ecopetrol has commissioned a 56 MW solar power plant in Colombia. It will deliver up to 76.3 GWh/year of solar energy from 84,900 solar panels installed. The La Cira Infantas Solar Farm is located in Campo 23, El Centro district in the Barrancabermeja, Santander region. It was inaugurated in the presence of Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy. Ecopetrol said this project will diversify the electricity supply of its La Cira Infantas production field, and replace 14% of its energy demand that’s currently supplied by the National Interconnected System. Ecopetrol’s President Ricardo Roa Barragán said, “We have the Castilla, San Fernando and Brisas solar farms. By the end of 2024, in addition to the Solar Farm at the Cartagena Refinery in the department of Bolívar, we will have three smaller solar farms in operation in the transportation segment.” By this year-end, its total renewable energy portfolio will expand to 700-800 MW of capacity either operational, under execution or under construction.
Energy storage project for Canadian Solar: Canadian Solar has secured a turnkey EPC contract in Chile to supply 98 MW/312 MWh DC battery energy storage system (BESS) to the Huatacondo project. The delivery will be made by its majority-owned subsidiary CSI Solar’s e-STORAGE unit will provide and integrate its advanced SolBank 3.0 energy storage solution for the project. It will also manage all civil, mechanical, and electrical infrastructure for the project. The Huatacondo project in Chile is developed by Sojitz Corporation and Shikoku Electric Power through their subsidiary Austriansolar Chile Cuatro. It is scheduled to come online in Q1 2025.
AES Brasil’s 178 MW solar complex: AES Brasil has expanded its Ouroeste Solar Complex to 178.3 MW capacity in Brazil’s São Paulo region. It was originally commissioned with around 145 MW capacity in 2019 and has now been expanded by another 33 MW. The project completion has been on schedule as part of the company’s growth and diversification strategy, it said. Construction on the expanded capacity was carried out by the Cesbe and Quebec Consortium.
Colombian certificate for Chinese modules: Chinese solar module manufacturer Hanersun has successfully passed the standard test and factory quality control capacity audit of Colombia’s Reglamento Tecnico De Instalaciones Electricas (RETIE). It has now officially obtained the RETIE certification issued by Colombian certification agency Vtek Group. This certification is essential for electrical products in Colombia, and essential for PV modules to enter the country’s market. The company says its HITOUCH 5N and HITOUCH 6N series modules with TOPCon technology have passed the RETIE certification as tests were based on IEC standards 61215 and 61730.
Huasun in Brazil: Chinese heterojunction (HJT) solar cell and module producer Huasun Energy discussed the benefits of this cell technology to the attendees of the 2nd Brazilian Forum on Centralized Power Generation in Brazil’s São Paulo recently. The company’s Regional Sales Director David Tsaava, and the Director of Business Development for Europe Christian Comes presented their HJT modules for various applications, including Himalaya G12, and discussed its benefits against TOPCon and TBC technologies in terms of bifaciality, temperature coefficient, degradation rate, among other parameters. It recently signed a cooperation agreement with Brazilian PV distributor BelEnergy to deliver its HJT modules in the Latin American region as the company targets expansion in this region.