California-based solar developer Noria Energy has launched a 1.5-MW floating solar park on the reservoir at the Urra hydroelectric power plant in northwest Colombia.
The site, dubbed Aquasol, consists of more than 2,800 solar modules and is expected to produce nearly 2,400 MWh of power in its first year of operation. The system is designed to sit on top of the water and withstand water-level fluctuations of up to 120 feet (36.5 m).
The new installation is expected to generate more than USD 1.2 million in additional electric power revenue over 20 years, a press release said on Thursday.
Noria Energy is the designer, developer and installer of the system, working in partnership with 1Solution, DISICO SA, G&C, Isigenere and Seaflex. The solar farm was realised as a pilot project for the independent power producer URRA SA ESP.
“URRA seeks to incorporate innovation and sustainable development in all its operations. We are very proud that Aquasol is the largest floating photovoltaic plant built at a reservoir of a hydroelectric power plant in South America to date,” the company’s president Rafael Amaya del Vecchio noted in the statement.
Noria, which will monitor the production and efficiency rates of Aquasol to compare it with those of onshore ground-mounted solar systems, intends to use the data to design and model larger-scale projects of this type in the future.
The 340-MW Urra hydropower plant is located in the Sinu River basin in Cordoba.
