Portugal Immigration focus on Life in Portugal: Portuguese solar tracker manufacturer Martifer Solar SA recently announced the commissioning of the 30 MW Aura Solar 1 photovoltaic power plant located in Baja California, Mexico. Martifer Solar stated that this power plant is currently the largest solar energy project in Latin America.
The company stated that the Aura Solar 1 project is also Mexico's first utility-scale power plant. Through a power purchase agreement, Mexican developer Gauss Energía sells the electricity from this plant to the public utility, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), at a fluctuating price.
The electricity price for the Aura Solar 1 project is based on Mexico's CTCP pricing. Although there are many risks, Gauss pointed out that due to the isolation of the regional power grid and excessive reliance on imported fossil fuels, the CTCP pricing in southern Baja California is very high.
In addition, the construction of the power plant received support from the German-Mexican development bank and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.
Martifer Solar noted that the project's single-axis trackers are equipped with photovoltaic modules produced by Suntech Power.
It is worth noting that in September, U.S. photovoltaic developer SunEdison announced the groundbreaking of a 100 MW DC solar power plant in the Atacama region of Chile. SunEdison stated that once completed, this project is expected to become the largest photovoltaic power plant in Latin America. However, according to SunEdison's projections, the first phase of the power plant will be completed in 2014.
