BICE has announced a new credit line to support solar installations for commercial & industrial and public sector in Argentina; Rumara to use solar power to produce soybean oil in Argentina; MPC’s 21.3 MW El Salvador PV projects commissioned; Grenergy expands solar capacity in Colombia with 3 projects.

Credit line for distributed solar in Argentina: The Argentine Development Bank (BICE) has launched a soft credit line for small and medium enterprises (SME), large companies and public sector to install solar panels for self-consumption. The line will award a maximum of ARS 20 million per applicant with a payment term of up to 5 years. Funds will be shelled out from the Fund for the Distributed Generation of Renewable Energies (FODIS). It is estimated for this credit line to help install approximately 20 MW of new PV capacity in the country in 2023.

Solar power for soybean oil: In a related news from Argentina’s BICE, it has supported financing for Rumara company to build a soybean oil production plant with capacity to grind 250 tons of soybeans per day, that will exclusively use solar power for its electricity needs. Solar energy from 408 panels will generate clean energy to power extrusion and oilseed processing plant in a 1,500 m² warehouse to extract expeller and refined soybean oil, and feed excess energy into the grid. Rumara expects the project to be ready in April 2023.

21.3 MW solar capacity online in El Salvador: The Netherlands based renewable energy company MPC Energy Solutions (MPCES) has commissioned 21.3 MW solar PV capacity in El Salvador in the form of 2 projects, Santa Rosa and Villa Sol. It says these projects are the 3^rd and 4^th projects in its portfolio to start operations as its 1^st operational project was in Mexico and the 2^nd in Puerto Rico. The 21.3 MW capacity is contracted to sell power generated to the local subsidiary of US based AES Corporation called CAESS under a 20-year US denominated power purchase agreement (PPA). This capacity is designed to generate 45.7 GWh annually in the 1^st year of the operations with a projected annual revenue of around $4.4 million. These 2 projects are funded by Banco Agricola (see Latin America PV News Snippets).

3 Grenergy solar plants grid connected in Colombia: Spanish renewable energy producer Grenergy has commissioned three 37 MW solar power plants in Colombia. The 3 projects Cerritos, La Medina and Los Caballeros in the Department of Tolima are part of a group of 37 MW generation projects that will produce a total of 69 GWh of renewable electricity annually, the company added. These are contracted to supply power to Celsia over a long term. Grenergy shared the country already operates 72 MW solar plants and more than 1 GW is under development.