Going green in the Chilean desert
In today’s world, large global brands recognise their corporate responsibility to lead the way in using clean energy. In keeping with this, a global, leading tech giant decided to power its data center in Chile entirely by solar. The right solution would allow them to keep serving their millions of customers while meeting the company’s clean energy goals.
The site for the data center was the Atacama region of Chile, one of the driest places in the world. The scale of the requirement and the hostile environment combined to make this project a major logistical and technological challenge.
ACCIONA, a major Spanish Independent Power Producer was appointed to meet this challenge. They decided to count on ABB for equipment that would be reliable even in these harsh desert conditions.
• 60 x PVS800-IS inverter stations, each rated 3.6 MW and containing three PVS800 central inverters, ABB UPS and AC500 PLC
• Medium voltage solutions with 60 dry type tranformers of 3.6 MVA and ABB SafePlus switchgears
• ABB Power Plant Controller for controlling and monitoring the plant
• Training, commissioning and local support for the years to come
The final result was the El Romero Solar plant, the largest photovoltaic plant of its kind in Latin America. It has a peak capacity of 246 MWp, able to generate 493 GWh of clean energy a year. By saving the emission of 473,000 metric tons of CO2 per year from coal-fired power stations, the El Romero plant is a flagship case for encouraging green energy on a global scale.
ACCIONA was able to extend its reputation as one of the world’s leading IPPs, help their client to realise its green energy goals, and make a significant contribution to making the world a better place with a large scale clean energy solution.