Antaisolar recently supplied a utility-scale 32MW solar farm in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China with its Helios D2 solar tracker. With a total installed capacity of 100MW, the solar power plant was successfully connected to the grid at the end of June in 2021.
Climate and terrain considerations
Adjacent to the Tengger Desert, the area the solar farm is located experiences multiple days of high wind speed and dusty weather throughout the year. This particular area also experiences extremely low temperatures in the winter and large temperature fluctuations between the day and night. The landscape of this region is soft soil with undulating hills, forming a complex terrain. This is why it was important to choose a tracker that was able to withstand these harsh weather conditions.
Why was Helios D2 chosen?
In order to achieve optimal balance of system (BOS) and levelised cost of energy (LCOE), and based on on-site survey, Antaisolar provided its Helios D2, a single-axis 2P solar tracker, which can resist gust wind speed up to 45m/s.
In the Tuyere area, a redundant damping system was designed to further enhance the wind resistance of the project. As for the foundation, a PHC solution was adopted to offer strong stability and thus reduce installation cost. Taking into account the complex terrain, Antaisolar offered different lengths of footing to reduce the cost of land leveling.
The solar tracker controller adopted an 800Vac power supply from the nearest inverter, meaning it didn’t require lithium batteries or much cable cost and routing construction, which enhanced the performance of the overall system under extremely low temperatures.
Moreover, the intelligent tracking algorithm has enormous advantages in this complex type of terrain. It can completely avoid shadow occlusion during the backtracking under different slopes, and it can also improve the power generation of bifacial modules in the case of low radiation and high reflectivity. It is estimated that it can achieve six per cent annual power generation augment compared with a traditional tracking algorithm.
Wind energy and solar energy: a strong complementary energy model for local grids
The solar power plant is delivered in cooperation with a local EPC, and Antaisolar advanced products were chosen for their considerable expertise in the sector.
With abundant wind resources, the project is close to a GW-level wind farm, and the complementary energy model of photovoltaic and wind energy is helping to popularise clean energy in the area.