JinkoSolar, SunPower And Trina Solar Announcements

Three of the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturers have published announcements in the last couple of days relating to significant solar projects, two of which are in Australia.

JinkoSolar – Maoneng Sunraysia Solar Farm, NSW

JinkoSolar announced today it is supplying 255MW of its solar panels for the Maoneng Sunraysia Solar Farm. 757,400 JinkoSolar panels will be used for the project, which is located at a site near Balranald in New South Wales.

Some of the electricity generated by the facility – originally to be 200MW capacity – will be purchased by the University of New South Wales under a power purchase agreement (PPA). This arrangement will enable UNSW to source 100% of its electricity from solar power.

Financial close for the project was achieved early this month. Up to 400 people will be working on the facility at the peak of construction, with it expected to commence electricity generation late next year.

SunPower – Limondale Solar Farm, NSW

349 megawatts of SunPower solar panels will be used for the construction of Limondale Solar Farm, SunPower announced yesterday. The company is supplying its P19¹ Performance Series (P-Series) modules.

Also located near Balranald, construction of Limondale Solar Farm began this month and the facility is expected to be fully operational in mid-2020.

The clean power station is being constructed by Innogy, and its subsidiary Belectric is the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

Trina Solar – Floating PV In France

To across the pond now – Trina Solar announced earlier today it had supplied 17 megawatts of panels for the largest floating PV plant project in Europe and the first for France.

The O’MEGA1 facility, developed by Akuo Energy, is located in Piolenc, southeastern France.

46,000 Trina Solar TSM-DEG14.20(II) dual-glass monocrystalline PERC modules are being supplied for the project.

Spread over 17 hectares, Trina Solar says the O’MEGA1 facility will provide enough electricity to cover the equivalent consumption of more than 4,700 households and avoid approximately 11,100 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

In other recent news from Trina, the company announced a couple of weeks ago it had delivered 123MW of solar panels for what will be the Ukraine’s largest solar farm, and the largest single solar power station in Europe. At a total capacity of 246MW, the project will be capable of generating an estimated 280 million kWh of electricity annually.