Swiss electrical equipment supplier ABB has secured a contract from Solek to supply solar string inverters and two medium-voltage (MV) transformer stations for a 9MW Villa Alegre solar park, to be located in the Maule region of central Chile.
The Villa Alegre project will include 1500 V string inverters PVS-175 with a capacity of 185kW.
The delivered PVS-175-MVCS-4810 transformer stations are based on a steel platform on which a transformer, ABB’s medium-voltage switchgear SafePlus, low-voltage switchgear, own consumption transformer and protection elements are installed.
ABB Czech Republic electrification business marketing and sales director Vladimír Janypka said: “ABB’s global footprint in solar power technic is really impressive thanks to 25 years of expertise in inverter technology and active sales and service in more than 100 countries. We also have dedicated solar power specialists operating in more than 30 countries and 4 global plants.”
“The inverters include digital elements enabling not only on-line monitoring using the Ethernet interface and wi-fi, but also on-line firmware upgrades. These elements enable remote service support.”
Founded in 2010, the Solek Group has installed more than 10 solar plants in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Romania and Chile, with a total installed capacity of more than 30MW.
Solek innovations head Jaroslav Kříž said: “The solar inverters used for the new solar power park have been equipped with high-quality IGBT transistors. That way we can guarantee high performance and availability, both to us and potential investors.
Solek is an old customer of ABB, with which it worked in 2017
In 2017, ABB supplied inverters for the Amparo Del Sol and Santa Laura solar power parks of Solek in Chile. The supply also included monitoring systems, weather stations with remote access for online monitoring and TRIO-50 (1000V) inverters or 50kWac solar inverters with 400Vac of output.
Last month, ABB announced that it will exit from solar inverter business and has agreed to sell the business to Italian company FIMER. The transaction will enhance future prospects of its solar inverter business and will allow ABB to focus on its core business portfolio on other growth markets.
ABB’s solar inverter business has about 800 employees across more than 30 countries, with manufacturing and R&D sites located in Italy, India and Finland.
The sale will include the solar inverter business from Power-One which was acquired by ABB’s Discrete Automation and Motion division in 2013.
