The Jacarandá solar photovoltaic (PV) plant has successfully signed the financing of construction. The 187MWp solar plant will be located in Juazeiro in the State of Bahia, Brazil. The plant is being developed by Atlas Renewable Energy. Mott MacDonald provided technical advisory services and undertook technical due diligence for IDB Invest. Commercial operation expected in late 2021.
The plant will generate around 440GWh of power per year and will supply clean energy to Dow Inc.’s Aratu petrochemical facility, among other consumers. The plant will use bifacial PV modules to increase the overall plant’s efficiency and reduce land use.
The project is the first Brazilian solar project totally financed in US dollars. The set of loans totalling USD67M is funded by IDB Invest, including the participation of Norwegian bank DNB Bank ASA and the mobilization of the Clean Technology Fund and the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Americas – Phase II.
Mott MacDonald was appointed on the project in December 2019. The consultancy provided due diligence and technical advisory services in particular providing a bankable energy yield assessment using an in-house methodology involving a 3D ray tracing software. It will continue to monitor the PV plant during the construction period. The project is being managed by Christina Ng working with a multidisciplinary team from the UK, Spain and Colombia.
Mott MacDonald’s project principal, Johana Trujillo, said: “We are proud to have helped the Jacarandá bifacial PV plant reach this stage of development. The plant will reduce CO2 emissions in the country by about 35,000 tons per year.”