- Hitachi Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sun Africa and its sister company, UGT Renewables, to collaborate on utility-scale solar photovoltaic power generation projects.
- The partners are currently completing their first project together: a 370-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant across seven sites in Angola, the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.
- They also have several utility-scale projects under negotiation, totaling more than 12 gigawatts in capacity, with various governments in Africa and Eurasia.
In the non-exclusive memorandum, both parties agree to collaborate at an early stage of prospective projects. They will jointly engage with local and international stakeholders, and provide optimized best-in-class and well-integrated solar power solutions that will enable developing nations to take significant steps toward broad and environmentally sustainable electrification.
Hitachi Energy is providing complete engineered solutions for optimized power collection packages and high-voltage grid connections, ensuring safe and reliable aggregation and transmission of power from the solar arrays to the power grid. Grid-eXpand™ grid connection solar solutions span the entire electrification of large-scale photovoltaic plants to deliver significant value. They are engineered, assembled and factory-tested before delivery, ready for speedy and easy energization on-site while reducing site-based construction risks.
The scope also includes an advanced supervisory control and data acquisition system that monitors the grid connection to help increase the flexibility of the energy system that is key in the integration of renewables. Advanced power consulting studies will also ensure grid code compliance and system-wide optimization.
Hitachi Energy brings its unique strengths to this collaboration. It is a leading provider of grid connections and power quality solutions, specializing in integration of renewables into the power grids and engineering excellence, a global footprint with strong local know-how.
Sun Africa and UGT Renewables will develop the projects, which after construction are transferred to the designated operator for continued operation. Each project will have a competitive levelized cost of energy, will be fully financed, and have an operations and maintenance plan in place to ensure the efficient and effective transfer of knowledge and technology.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
