A successful conclusion to the Pilkington Solar Farm (2,3 MWp) launch in the United Kingdom

Upon the signing of the EPC contract at the end of February 2019, it was doubly challenging to deliver the plant within the projected timeline. For one thing, importing and installing the main equipment before the end of March, as in the event of a finalised Brexit, it would be very complicated to run the operations from the European Union. And for another, connecting and activating the installation before the end of April (when a change in the country’s grid code was to take effect), which would have affected the intended design and significantly delayed the installation’s activation.

Lightsource BP once again put their trust in Grupotec to tackle these challenges. The latter has surpasses all expectations in accomplishing the construction of the plant and the connection to the grid on 16 April. Grupotec were pleased to have again met the tight deadlines when it comes to connecting photovoltaic plants in the competitive British market, maintaining their usual required quality standards.

The speed of execution is not meant to detract from the design phase of the installation, where Grupotec have always placed particular emphasis. For this project, it was decided to use string inverters with advanced communication technology via PLC (Power Line Communication) and optimal output through the 4 MPPTs (Maximum Power Point Trackers) per inverter. The other component that characterises a photovoltaic solar plant are its panels, and here it was decided to take advantage of the technical characteristics featured by the amorphous silicon modules, which have better response, and thereby, a better output, in the presence of temperature changes and shadows that could be projected onto them.