Sungrow Supplies Latin America’s Largest Under Construction PV Plant

After an agreement and the recent emission of NTP (“Notice To Proceed” or “Service Order”) with Focus Energia, an integrated energy business platform, Sungrow will supply inverters and MV stations for the implementation of the first phase of the Futura Project, an 852 MWp solar park that will soon be one of the largest in operation in Latin America.

Considering the environmental authorizations already issued, approximately two thousand hectares will be destined for the implementation of the 22 parks in the first phase of the Project (“Projeto Futura I”), with 38.73 MWp each. The designated area is about 40 km from the urban center of Juazeiro, in the north of the State of Bahia. Upon completion, its total capacity will be approximately 852 MWp, with an estimated investment of more than 2.2 billion Reais. In addition to the commissioning and start-up service, Sungrow plans to supply more than 100 MVS6300-LV transformation stations and more than 3,000 SG250HX inverters. The Futura I Project will be the largest photovoltaic plant under construction with bifacial modules, trackers, and string inverters in Latin America.

During the process of technical analysis of Sungrow’s solution with Focus, it was clear to Sungrow that some factors were decisive to the contract, such as its high performing inverters, the flexibility of reactive energy production in both day and night, the reduction of the capacitor banks needed to meet the requirements of the study of connection to the concessionaire network, and the fact that the SG250HX which is compatible with bifacial modules of 600 Wp.

Another fundamental differential was the high performance and low losses in the transformation of energy in MV station. In practice, the MV station gathers RMU, transformers and the low voltage three-phase panels of 800Vac, 3200A, according to NBR IEC 61439-1. The transformers supplied by Sungrow have a high efficiency especially compared to those normally sold in the Brazilian market, offering a higher yield of at least 0.2%, due to the manufacturing processes and low equipment losses. All of this translates into greater efficiency and the possibility to optimize the overall investment of the project.

According to Rafael Ribeiro, Country Manager of Sungrow Brazil, the company sees the importance of the Futura Project for the country and highlights its social and economic impact in the city of Juazeiro. “Supporting Focus in a project like this is a great responsibility and accomplishment for our team. It is estimated that more than eight thousand direct and indirect jobs will be generated in the region,” said Rafael Ribeiro.

The installation work is scheduled to start in April of this year and the plant’s commercial operation is scheduled to start in the first half of 2022.