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First floating solar island in Latin America in Brazil. With 1.852 modules and a capacity of 1 MW, this sustainable project is a milestone in renewable energy. Find out all the details
Brazil has just become the first country in Latin America to put into operation a floating solar park. We are talking about a project costing 5 million reais (around 930 thousand euros) that required the installation of 1.852 modules on an area of 8.000 square meters to offer an energy generation capacity of 1 MW.
According to EPBR, the solar energy island is located in the municipality of Roseira, in the state of São Paulo. One of the most striking aspects of the engineering work is that it was developed on an exhausted quarry. This huge well was converted into the dike that is now home to thousands of photovoltaic panels that have been operating since the beginning of October.
Solar energy to meet the needs of a mining unit
You may wonder, what will be the destination of the energy generated? The answer is that it will serve to meet the energy needs of a mining unit managed by the AB Areias Group, a mining giant with a presence in several parts of Brazil. The company says that this initiative is part of its “sustainability plans”.
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The group is convinced that this project will result in less electricity consumption. In fact, it hopes to replicate this same scheme in another of its mining units, specifically the one in Vale do Paraíba, although there is no set date for this. In any case, AB Areias did not do all the work individually.
The company F2B, a specialist in photovoltaic projects, was in charge of building the solar energy island, a structure that, by the way, is capable of supporting up to 350 kg per square meter. Furthermore, they explain, it offers space to house inverters and transformers. At this point, however, European technology also intervened.
F2B, in turn, teamed up with the Italians at NGR Island. The latter have been designing and building photovoltaic energy systems worldwide since 2010. And, although NGR Island did not intervene directly in the project, it did so through its technology, which was used by F2B locally thanks to the agreement.
Advantages of floating solar parks
Floating solar parks, compared to traditional ones, offer a wide variety of advantages. They do not take up space on land, can take advantage of reservoir infrastructure, reduce water evaporation and even promise to have better performance. Possibly for all this reason they are growing in popularity.
