T-Solar and Solarpack awarded four PV contracts

T-Solar will develop two plants, and the other two will be developed jointly.

The plants, to be located in southern Peru in the regions of Tacna, Arequipa and Moquegua, are expected to come on line by July 2012.

The 20-year contracts were won at the nation’s first renewables tender, in which 21 groups participated with power projects including solar, biomass, wind and small hydro. The country had been seeking to contract 1.3 gigawatts (GW), but contracted a total of 411MW.

Contract prices secured for the T-Solar/Solarpack plants range from $215 per megawatt hour (MWh) to $225/MWh. The price ceiling for solar power—announced after the proposals had been turned in—was $265/MWh.

Two other solar power projects, proposed by Wind & Alternative Energy and Energía Alternativa Solar, totalling 21MW did not win because they requested $295/MWh and $350/MWh, respectively.

“The project looks good, as there is high solar irradiation in these areas and the conditions in Peru are attractive, an investment-grade country with political and economic stability,” says T-Solar’s chief executive officer, Juan Laso.

Peru, population 30 million, had a GDP that grew 1.5% in 2009, while inflation stood at 3.2%, and it has doubled its energy capacity in since 1995, according to T-Solar. It expects energy demand to rise by 6% in 2010.

T-Solar, set up in 2007, has invested 1.7bn euros in PV development. In Spain, the company has an installed capacity of 143MW in operation and 25MW being developed in Spain and Italy, expected to come on line in June.

T-Solar has a pipeline of more than 650MW worth of projects and is focused on markets in Spain, Italy, France, the US and India.

Solarpack is also implementing the $40m 9MW Calama Solar 1 in Chile’s Atacama desert, which the company says is the first multi-megawatt solar plant with an environmental licence in South America.

The company has four solar PV plants in operation in Spain totaling 21.4MW of installed capacity. It has a backlog of 260MW in France, the US and South America.

“Our upfront, innovative wager on this market is bearing fruit even earlier than we expected,” says Solarpack’s general manager Pablo Buros.