O Mendubim Solar Complex, the largest photovoltaic project in the Rio Grande do Norte, was inaugurated this Tuesday (09) in the municipality of Assu. With investments of $ 2,1 billion, the project has 531 MW of installed power.
The complex is composed of 13 plants and covers a area de 1,2 thousand hectares – the equivalent of 1,2 thousand fields de football club. Construction began in July 2022 and, at the height of the work, more than 1,6 workers worked simultaneously.
All in all, they are 974 thousand modules 545 W Canadian Solar, 2.560 investors da Huawei and about 11 thousand trackers da Nexttracker, in addition to voltage step-up transformers. The complex also has 83 electrocenters distributed across 31 medium voltage circuits.
The electrocenters were connected to a pumping substation, composed by two transformers of power of 280 MVA each, where the operating voltage is increased to 230 thousand Volts, for transmission purposes.
Solar s are installed on Trackers, whose stakes have almost 3 meters – of which 1,60 meters is sunk below ground level.
Complement the complex 54 km de structures de drainage across the land to drain rainwater, which averages close to 120 mm between January and May.
Complex inauguration ceremony
The event was attended by leaders Taj four partner companies of the enterprise, all with capital of Norwegian origin – Scatec, Equinor, Hydro Huh e Alunorte – as well as representatives from the three spheres of government – federal, state and municipal – and the government of Norway.
“What we are celebrating here today is a very important milestone not only for Rio Grande do Norte, the Northeast or Brazil, but for the world”, he pointed out Fatima Bezerra, governor of Rio Grande do Norte.
The Consul General of Norway Mette Tangen also emphasized the partnership between the country and Brazil. “Brazil is very important for Norway for the energy transition. Being here today fills me with pride because it shows that we are walking side by side with Brazil in building a more sustainable future for the planet and for future generations”, he highlighted.
“This solar complex, in the middle of the semi-arid northeast, is Scatec’s second project in the country. Brazil is a key market for us and has immense potential to grow in renewable energy”, he stated Terje Pilskog, global CEO of Scatec.
Aleksander Skaare, Scatec's country manager in Brazil, highlighted that the country is not only positioned well as a producer, but also due to the qualification of its specialized workforce in the renewable energy sector.
“The country has immense potential for growth in renewable energy. It already leads, by far, this sector in Latin America, and is one of the main international players in this market. We want to be part of that,” she highlighted.
Construction stages of the Mendubim complex
The project, located just over 200 km from Natal, extends over a perimeter of 38 kilometers. The first commercial operations began in February this year, with Mendubins 11 and 9 and, sequentially, the others were activated, until the last date for the start of commercial operations, in March 2024.
The site is 6 kilometers from the Assu 3 energy substation, which connects to the SIN (National Interconnected System) and the area, considered excellent for solar energy generation, has a maximum slope of 5%.
The project's shareholding composition initially included three partners – Scatec, Hydro and Equinor, who would have equal shares in the project. However, since the beginning of March, Alunorte has acquired 10% of the project and committed to purchasing 60% of the energy produced.
The company signed a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) – energy purchase term – for twenty years. As a result, the composition is now divided into 30% for each of the initial partners (Scatec, Equinor and Hydro Rein) and 10% for Alunorte.
Women's participation
Throughout its construction, Mendubim selected and trained 240 women without professional training to work in the area of renewables, with 120 trained to assemble solar s and 120 to work in other diverse qualifications.
The initiative was promoted in partnership with ITEC (Brazilian Technological Institute). This effort is in addition to other initiatives that allowed the company to reach 30% of women in operational and equipment maintenance activities. In Brazil, in all areas, the participation of women at Scatec is 39% of the workforce.
Respect for the environment
The production of clean and renewable energy over the next few years in Mendubim will prevent approximately 3 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from being emitted into the atmosphere. In addition to this milestone, several other measures were taken to minimize the project's impact on the environment.
Among them is the unprecedented decision not to remove the top layer of soil in this project, which is considered an engineering innovation in photovoltaic plants.
Traditionally, in similar projects, 15 centimeters of ground cover are removed. “The idea here was to reduce the environmental impact and preserve the microbiology of the soil”, explains Scatec’s country manager.
From the built area, more than 6,2 local fauna were rescued. A management effort – encoming a team of more than 40 people – that directed them to legal reserves in the same river basin where Mendubim is located.
The vast majority (95%) of these animals were snakes, lizards and armadillos. “We also took care to ask a local beekeeper to relocate the bee hives we found in the region,” says Skaare.
Likewise, two Environmental Impact Studies and two other Forest Inventories were conducted to arrive at a forest replacement project, aiming to recover degraded areas.
This resulted in the planting of 340 diverse seedlings, composed of native species from the Caatinga biome, to ensure greater biodiversity, soil protection, water conservation and reduced erosion in the region.
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