North America PV News Snippets

Nextracker will supply its tracker technology for Saudi Arabia's Sudair Solar Plant; SunPower's SunVault Storage can cover entire home during outage; DESRI commissions 189 MW solar; Silicon Ranch starts construction of 70 MW project; Enphase & GMP partner for pilot program.

Nextracker trackers for Saudi solar plant: Leading solar tracker supplier Nextracker will provide its bifacial optimized solar trackers and TrueCapture technology for phase I of 450 MW Sudair Solar PV Plant, coming up in Saudi Arabia. Calling it the country's largest solar power plant currently under construction with cumulative 1.5 GW capacity, Nextracker said it works with local Saudi steel suppliers for the Sudair plant. Solar EPC company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) picked the US tracker company for the project it is installing for ACWA Power, Saudi Aramco, and Badeel/WEHC which is a subsidiary of Public Investment Fund (PIF). Nextracker expects the installation of its trackers to start on site in Al Majmahh, Riyadh in Q2/2022.

SunPower expands SunVault Storage: US based residential solar power company SunPower Corporation says its battery storage system SunVault Storage can now cover entire home back up in case of an outage. The system now offers double the energy as previous iterations with 26 kWh and 52 kWh configurations. Power back from the system can help keep essential appliances running during a grid outage, as refrigeration and HVAC, washer/dryer, pool pump or electric vehicle (EV) charger. The company said it is also offering 10-year warranty for the product, including 70% usable energy retention which 'raises the standard' for residential energy storage systems with no restriction on total energy throughput or the number of times the battery can be charged. The company is also offering Complete Confidence Warranty covering everything from panels and racking to monitoring hardware.

DESRI energizes 189 MW solar in the US: DE Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) has announced commissioning of 2 solar power plants in partnership with Ranger Power, with a combined capacity of 189 MW. 110 MW AC Assembly Solar II and 79 MW AC Assembly Solar III are located in Shiawassee County of Michigan. While the 110 MW AC plant is contracted under 2×25-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with Michigan Public Power Agency (MPPA) and Lancing Board of Water & Light (BWL), the Assembly Solar III facility has a 25-yeaar PPA with DTE Energy.

Silicon Ranch constructing 70 MW AC solar project: Silicon Ranch Corporation and partners Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) have started construction of a 70 MW AC solar power facility in Madison County, Tennessee. Power generated from the McKeller Solar Farm will be supplied to social media giant Meta, previously Facebook, for its regional operations. The $90 million facility is likely to wind up construction before the end of 2022.   

Enphase partners GMP for pilot program: Solar microinverter supplier Enphase Energy, Inc has joined US utility Green Mountain Power's (GMP) battery lease grid services pilot program. Under this, GMP will offer Enphase Energy Systems to its customers. Homeowners can also enroll in the utility's Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) grid services program under which customers can bring their own Enphase Energy Systems to participate and earn an up-front incentive. Enphase is also launching its Grid Services Manager, a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) that GMP will use to manage virtual power plants with Enphase Energy Systems. Enphase expects to offer this software product for utility grid managers and distributed energy resource aggregators in the future," stated the company.