03 December 2012
Kaco New Energy, a global inverter manufacturer headquartered in Germany, and developer OCI Solar Power have finalized a partnership to construct a 400MW project in Texas.
The companies say the PV project will be the state’s largest, and will account for sales to Kaco New Energy of about $500 million throughout the next 10 years.
CPS Energy, the utility company for San Antonio, Texas, United States, awarded the construction of these projects to OCI Solar Power in July. Like the consortium partners Nexolon and Ercam Trackers, Kaco New Energy will set up its own manufacturing plant in San Antonio.
In its outdoor version with external transformers and an additional AC circuit-breaker on the baseplate, Kaco New Energy’s central inverters will be assembled to form functional units called IPS (Integrated Power Stations).
The first 50MW of solar energy will already be fed into the San Antonio grid by late 2013. The total will be increased to 400MW by 2016. By then, the combined sub-plants will supply electricity for approximately 70,000 households in Greater San Antonio, representing one-tenth of CPS Energy’s electric customers.
The companies project that, with this project, Texas will climb in the ranks of the top five solar power producing states in the US. Four hundred MW corresponds to 4% of the total US photovoltaic market and will double the previously installed PV output in the State of Texas.
With the completion of the project in 2016, CPS Energy will have achieved its goal of supplying 1,500 MW of clean energy output a few years earlier than its self-mandated target of 2020.
