Colombia. On September 3, Celsia Solar Yumbo, the first large-scale solar generation plant that has an installed capacity of 9.8 MW and will generate about 16.5 GWh of energy per year, equivalent to the consumption of 8,000 homes, entered into operations.
The start of operations was declared before XM, operator of the National Interconnected System and administrator of the Wholesale Energy Market. For its construction, 35,000 photovoltaic modules and 9 inverters were installed that transform continuous energy into alternating energy. The project was developed in just six months, from March to date, after it announced its construction in February.
This farm is coupled with the other energy sources that Celsia has: 21 water plants, 18 of them in Colombia to take advantage of water, the largest generation resource in the country; five thermal plants that offer support and security to the system (three are located in Colombia), and one wind farm in Costa Rica that generates from the wind.
Celsia's goal is to have 250 MW of photovoltaic energy installed in the medium term through solar generation farms in Colombia and Central America, for which it is about to start a second project in the country and two in Panama, which would place the organization at the forefront of this technology in the region.
In Colombia, it is evaluating alternatives in the departments of Valle del Cauca, Bolívar, Santander and Cesar, and in Panama, in the province of Chiriquí.
Some facts:
- It will avoid the emission of 160 thousand tons of CO2 for 25 years.
- Its generation capacity resembles the average consumption or demand of 8,000 families.
- The area in which the farm was built is 18 hectares, which is equivalent to 16 professional football fields.
- It was built in the place where Termoyumbo worked, on the old Cali-Yumbo road, in Valle del Cauca, a relevant factor given that it means moving from an energy production from coal to a renewable one.
Source: Celsia Solar.
