ABB has secured an order from Spanish power producer Acciona to deliver all-in-one inverter solutions for the 246MW El Romero solar plant in Chile.

The solar plant is located in Atacama desert in Chile, 645km north of Santiago, the country’s capital.

Atacama desert, which spans 1000km, is considered to be one of the driest places on earth where can range between 40 °C in the day and -5 °C and below at night.

As per the terms of the supply contract, ABB will supply and install 60 of its ABB PVS800-IS inverter stations, each rated at 3.6MW.

The Swiss heavy electrical company claims that its PVS800-IS inverter has high conversion efficiency with low auxiliary power consumption. It is a plug-and-play station, designed for multi-megawatt solar power plants.

For easy and rapid connection to medium voltage transformer station, each inverter station has two or three PVS800 central inverters, which feature embedded auxiliary power, monitoring and air filtration systems.

It also claims that the inverter solution also includes 60 environmentally safe, dry type transformers of 3.6MVA, which are designed to perform optimally throughout the lifetime of the solar plant.

 ABB SafePlus CCV SF6 insulated compact switchgear and ABB Power Plant Controller for controlling and monitoring the solar plant.

The solar plant covers an area of 280 hectares and is presently considered to be the largest photovoltaic plant of its kind in Latin America.

Its peak capacity is 246MW and generates about 493GWh of clean electricity every year. This power is equivalent to fulfill electricity demands of 240,000 homes, while offsetting 473,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, had the electricity been generated from a coal-fired plant.

ABB Spain Solar product marketing director, Alfredo Diez-Hochleitner said: “The El Romero Solar Plant was a huge feat of engineering in hostile conditions, that saw ABB work closely with ACCIONA to install solar solutions that provide 100% of the data center’s clean energy.

“We are proud of our ongoing investment in energy efficient solar technology that can operate in the most challenging environments, together with our ability to work closely with our partners to develop bespoke solutions, which has created an outstanding solar plant for the future.”

Image: ABB to supply inverter solution for Acciona’s solar plant in Chile. Photo: Courtesy of ABB.