OPERATION AND ENERGY PRODUCTION OF TWO 1 MW LOW COCENTRATION PV PLANTS IN TOLEDO (SPAIN) M. Alonso Abella 1 , F. Chenlo 1 , C. Rodríguez 2 , J. Sánchez 2 and J. Rodríguez 2 1 Ciemat – Avda. Complutense, 22 – 28040 Madrid, Spain Phone: +34 91 3466492; Fax: +34 91 3466037; email: miguel.alonso@ciemat.es 2 Fotovoltaica 10 CM – PI El Beato 10, Urb. Los Olivos – 45280 Olías del rey, Toledo, Spain Phone: +34 925354810; Fax: +34 925354830; email: jesuss@fotovoltaica10cm.com ABSTRACT: The purpose of this project is to present the data of the first months of operation of two 1 MW nominal power V-trough 2X low concentration grid connected PV plants that are in operation in the locations of Alcolea del Tajo and Talavera de la Reina, respectively, in the province of Toledo (Spain). Low concentration (2X geometric V- trough cavity), use of standard PV modules, no additional cooling, uniform illumination and two axis tracking are the main concepts considered in the design. Keywords: Low concentration, Tracking, Large Grid-connected PV systems, system performance. 1 INTRODUCTION Two 1 MW nominal power V-trough 2X low concentration grid connected PV plants have been installed and are in operation in the locations of Alcolea del Tajo and Talavera de la Reina, both located in the province of Toledo (Spain). The PV generator is mainly composed by standard Sunpower, back-contact cells, PV modules operating in a V-trough cavity at low concentration, 2X. A large area (400 m²) 2-axis sun tracker has been developed, including the sun tracking control. The final objective is to decrease the €/kWh cost, to increase the kWh/kWp in PV generation and to reduce the energy payback time comparison to conventional flat- plate PV systems. Both plants are installed in the province of Toledo, Spain, a region with a high solar irradiation with yearly values for a typical meteorological year [1] of 2,648 kWh/m² of global irradiation incident on a 2-axis tracker surface, G(α,β), and 1,853 kWh/m² of Beam irradiation, see Table III. Electricity generation costs shall be 0.20 €/kWh. The annual energy delivered to the grid is estimated to be around 2.06 GWh. Each 1 MW PV plant will save around 20 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions based on a 20-year lifetime with regards to a conventional flat-plate PV module system installed in the same location. Also the system embedded energy in the manufacturing process is reduced, and so, reducing the energy payback time [2] of the plant from 2.3 to 1.5-1.4 years. This is due basically because less silicon is required for the same installed capacity, which is the most energy consumption element during manufacturing. 2 PV PLANTS DESCRIPTION Alcolea del Tajo 1 MW (785.43 kWp) PV plant is located in Toledo, Spain. The PV plant has 30 PV trackers of 400 m² each one, specifically developed in this project, connected to 10 SMA Sunny Central 100 kW nominal power inverters. The PV generator is based on a V-trough cavity 2X low concentrator mirror system [3,4,5] that was already showed it techno-economical viability [6,7] in recent PV grid connection. Table I: – Alcolea del Tajo 1MW PV Plant PV generator. Inverter Tracker Conf. P m [Wp] Module Strings Total 1 2 210 23520 72240 1 3 16sx7p 225 25200 4 5 106260 * 2 6 14sx11p 230 3540 7 8 70560 3 9 16sx7p 210 23520 10 11 16sx7p 25200 57600 4 13 16sx2p 225 7200 13 16sx5p 225 18000 14 65040 5 15 16sx7p 210 23520 16 17 110880 ♦ 6 18 16sx11p 210 36560 19 16sx3p 10800 20 61200 7 21 16sx7p 225 25200 19 16sx4p 225 14400 22 61440 8 24 16sx7p 210 23520 25 ♣ 9 26 17sx15p 215 54825 109650 28 29 70560 10 30 16sx7p 210 23520 TOTAL 785,430 Flat plate 326,790 With mirrors (2X) 458,640 NOTES: * Zitehc ZT230, ♦ Kyocera KD210GX-LP, all the rest are Sunpower PV modules *, ♦ and ♣ are flat plate (no mirrors), all the rest 2X