La Pimienta is an operational large-scale solar plant located in the state of Campeche in Mexico. With a production capacity of 300MW, the project is the second largest solar plant in the country.
The solar project was developed by Atlas Renewable Energy, a renewable energy developer in Latin America.
La Pimienta became fully operational in November 2022.
The plant will generate around 789GWh of renewable energy per year and help in meeting power requirements of the Yucatan Peninsula.
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La Pimienta Solar Plant details
The La Pimienta Solar Plant consists of more than one million solar panels across an area of 651 hectares.
The associated infrastructure of the solar plant includes transmission and interconnection facilities. A transmission line of up to 2.17km connects the lift substation to the interconnection substation.
The interconnection substation is connected to the Transmission System Network.
The 789GWh of electricity generated by the plant will be enough to benefit more than 300,000 families. The project will also help in offsetting the emission of more than 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Power Supply
The solar plant will supply renewable power to the state-owned electric utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
Atlas Renewable Energy signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply power to Federal Electric Commission (CFE Suministro Basico) for 15 years. The power will be used to meet electricity requirements of Yucatan Peninsula.
The long-term PPA is aligned with the Government of Mexico’s plan to diversify its electricity matrix by delivering clean PV solar energy and reducing the country's dependence on thermal energy.
Mexico aims to increase the contribution of clean energies in the electricity generation matrix to 50% in 2050.
Construction of the La Pimienta plant
The construction phase of the plant created more than 1,000 jobs. The company prioritised hiring of local people for the project.
Under Atlas Renewable Energy’s flagship programme, a total of 355 local women were trained in technical skills and 165 of them were recruited for Solar Plant.
According to the company, the initiative raised women representation from a usual 2% to 15% during the construction of such projects.
Atlas also took steps to preserve local flora and fauna as well as improved a natural corridor within the plant site. The company has also reintroduced the local flora rescued during the construction phase and undertook a 450-hectare reforestation programme to plant around 100,000 specimens.
Contractors involved
Atlas Renewable Energy procured solar modules for the La Pimienta Solar Plant from companies such as Chint, Longi and Suntech.
The inverters for the solar plant were provided by Suntech.
Financing
The development of La Pimienta represented the first large-scale solar renewable energy investment in Campeche. It reached financial closure in 2021.
Several institutions such as the National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), Société Générale (Soc Gen), and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG Bank) participated in the financing of the project.
According to the World Bank, the amount of debt provided by Banobras, MUFJ and Soc Gen were $101.84m, $79.36m and $68.95m respectively. SMBC ($79.36m) and IDB ($68.95m) were also among debt providers.
Guajiro Solar Plant
Atlas Renewable Energy has 1.2GW of contracted projects in construction or operational stages across Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
Apart from La Pimienta, the company’s Mexican portfolio includes 129.5MW Guajiro Solar Plant.
The project, located in Hidalgo State of Mexico, features more than 370,000 solar panels across an area of 410 hectares. It can generate 300GWh of electricity per year and offset 215,000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Guajiro Solar entered commercial operations in 2019 and it benefits approximately 120,000 households.