Global developer of utility-scale solar power projects and advanced thermal energy storage SolarReserve has announced the signature of a supply contract for its 20MW Acajutla PV solar power project in El Salvador. The contract is part of a highly competitive tender solicitation by the local electric distribution companies for El Salvador’s first utility-scale solar power facility.
The tender was administered by Distribuidora de Electricidad del Sur (“DELSUR”), one of the seven electricity distribution companies operating in El Salvador. It was overseen by the country’s Electricity and Telecommunications regulatory body Superintendencia General de Electricidad y Telecomunicaciones (“SIGET”).
The Acajutla project is the first of several facilities in SolarReserve’s 800MW pipeline of solar power projects in development in Latin America. These projects will include advanced solar thermal technology (CSP), PV technology and hybrid (combined CSP and PV) solutions that can provide competitive 24-hour solar energy.
“Many Latin American countries, including El Salvador, have experience with renewable energy such as geothermal or hydroelectric” said Kevin Smith, SolarReserve’s CEO. “As demand for electricity continues to grow, Latin America represents a great opportunity for solar power development. With the region’s excellent solar resource and escalating and uncertain prices of fossil fuels, solar power makes more than just environmental sense – it makes economic sense. We look forward to continuing our work on Acajutla and on our other photovoltaic and solar thermal projects in development in Latin America.”
SolarReserve is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and currently has more than $1.8 billion of projects in construction and operation globally. The company has also commercialised its molten salt solar thermal energy storage technology in a power tower configuration. This enables the company to operate its CSP power plants on-demand day and night, thereby delivering a stable and predictable electricity supply similar to that provided by conventional fossil-fuel plants.
The company has a 5,000 MW worldwide development portfolio of large-scale solar power projects which includes CSP, PV and hybrid. Its first utility-scale facility featuring molten salt technology, the 110 MW Crescent Dunes plant in Nevada, is currently in the commissioning phase and will generate more than 500,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year including 10 hours of full-load energy storage. This will be enough to power 75,000 Nevada homes with clean, reliable electricity day and night via Nevada’s electric utility, NV Energy, through a 25-year power purchase agreement. In addition to its headquarters in the US, SolarReserve has offices in Spain, Chile, South Africa, Turkey, Australia, United Arab Emirates and the UK, with activities underway in the Middle East, Africa, Australia, China, and Latin America.
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