Colombia. The National Government is preparing to execute the first Non-Conventional Renewable Energy project that is also financed by third-party financial entities of the Bosques de los Llanos 1 Solar Park, which is being built in the municipality of Puerto Gaitán, Meta, and which will have the photovoltaic technology of Trina Solar.
The company will provide in its first phase the more than 67 thousand photovoltaic modules that are required and that will generate 27.2 MW. It is expected to be operating in May 2020.
In recent days, the National Development Finance (FDN) of Colombia announced that the financing of the solar park for 45 billion Colombian pesos (COPs) in which the government entity participates with a senior loan of up to 22,369 million COPs, which corresponds to 50% of the debt and Banco Davivienda participates with the remaining portion.
"This project represents a historic milestone for both Trina Solar and Colombia because it is the first time that a solar plant in this modality has been financed in the country. In addition, we also achieved the first sales contract with an energy marketer, VATIA, in the form of an energy purchase and sale agreement (PPA) and a payment on demand. It was a negotiation of more than nine months that was achieved based on the trust that was built from a dynamic of "education" between both technical and financial parties, "says Rubén Borja, Director of the ISBU unit of Trina Solar for Colombia, Peru and Mexico.
The part of modules that Trina Solar will provide to the project in its stage one is 67,420 modules of between 395 and 405 monocrystalline watts and will include the installation of unidirectional trackers from NClave, a company it owns. The project consists of three phases in total: Bosque Solares de los Llanos I, II, III, each with a capacity of 27.2 MW, the first is already under construction and it is estimated that no later than the beginning of the second half of 2020 all three will be operating commercially.
"With our negotiating capacity, our quality of service and our cutting-edge technology we are now opening the doors to this type of projects in Peru, we want to replicate the success that has been had in Colombia and we plan to do the same with Mexico," Borja added.
In just two years, Trina Solar in Colombia has obtained important power generation projects that will generate more than 400 MW. In 2019, the Mining and Energy Planning Unit or UPME (special administrative unit, of a technical nature, attached to the Ministry of Mines and Energy) of that country awarded Trina Solar projects for 297 MW through the auction mechanism. Trina's technology was selected for the projects for its high quality, power and performance of its modules, for being the third leading global company in the market and for having the banking (credit) reliability that Bloomberg has supported.
