Arctech to bid in 3rd Puerto Peñasco solar park tender

Through its Mexican subsidiary, Chinese solar solution manufacturer Arctech Solar seeks to participate in the third stage of development of the 1GW Puerto Peñasco solar plant in Sonora state. 

Arctech's Latin American sales manager, Olvia Malagón Pfeiffer, told BNamericas about the firm's intentions on the sidelines of the Energyear Mexico 2023 event in Mexico City.

The first stage of the US$1.6bn photovoltaic plant was opened earlier this year and involves 120MW. Construction is underway on the second (300MW) and third (300MW) stages, due to start operations in the first half of 2026. The last stage should conclude in 2028, according to power utility CFE, which oversees the project and will operate the plant.

Archetch has already won a tender to provide CFE with about 8,000 solar trackers, which help boost the amount of electricity through the constant orientation of the PV panels towards the sun for the whole day. 

In the first tender, “There were external agents involved such as specialists who were bidding specifically in the country of origin, in China, and we, the local Mexican team, began to support the entire engineering design part, site support, project management and train installers,” Malagón said. 

The 1B-type trackers “have a vertical module and are around 360MW. When all the stages are completed, it is expected to be the largest solar park in Latin America.” 

Besides preparing its offer for the plant’s next stage, Arctech will also begin to train CFE personnel to use the trackers already provided.

“We will be entering soon into the conditioning stage and, from there, the training for operation. CFE is going to stay with the operation. We train them so that they know how the trackers are registered, how the alarms are read, and how often they have to do preventive maintenance,” Malagón added. 

Puerto Peñasco is part of the US$48bn Plan Sonora sustainable energy strategy in the northern state that includes natural gas and LNG projects. 

"We depend on the sizes of projects. Our main focus in Mexico will always be utility-scale projects because we know that the conditions are there for them to be found, not so much on the issue of regulation with permits. But we see some strategic projects continue to be supported with trackers, even if they are of lower capacity," said Malagón.