Construction continues at largest Sunny Tripower site

At a blistering three megawatts-per-week pace, progress at Honduras’s largest PV plant is being made in great strides. The 24 MW Pavana Solar Park in Choluteca began construction in late 2014 and is expected to be commissioned in early 2015.

Workers laying conduit amid construction in Honduras.

Designed by Orlando, Florida-based EPC Sybac Solar, the system features a decentralized design for numerous reasons, including reduced upfront and long-term costs, increased energy production and ease of installation and future service given restricted site accessibility. Moreover, the redundancy provided by multiple inverters will preserve system uptime, protecting against lost profits.

Big power, big performance

Owned by Honduran energy company Energia Basica S.A., the Pavana Solar Park will also include 79,200 Yingli Solar modules. The system is expected to generate more than 42 GWh per year, enough to cover the annual energy consumption of about 61,000 Honduran households.

Making usable AC power from the site will be the job of 880 Sunny Tripower 24000TL-US three-phase inverters, communicating with the plant’s operators through 22 Cluster Controllers. The system will combine the sophistication and performance of a utility-scale plant with the benefits of decentralized design for the remote location’s installation and future serviceability.

Progress moves quickly at the Pavana Solar Park.

Getting there

Getting to the Pavana Solar Park is only half the battle. Installing any large-scale infrastructure solar is made increasingly more challenging due to limited access roads and lacking specialized equipment to handle such projects.

Transportation logistics played a crucial role in determining which inverter, racking and other balance-of-system equipment would be best for the site. Limiting the need for semi-truck deliveries and crane operations reduced costs and risk of construction delays.

Power up

As construction draws to a close, SMA Inverted will keep readers updated with the plant’s commissioning and photos of the finished site. It promises to be well worth the wait!