Sandstorms and searing heat: supplying solar trackers for the Middle East’s largest PV plant

Expansive solar arrays in the desert at Al Dhafra PV2 PV (trackers)
Al Dhafra PV2 PV

Arctech has signed a 2.1GW trackers supply agreement with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) on for Al Dhafra PV2 PV power plant in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which will be the largest of its kind in the Middle East when completed. The plant will supply enough electricity to provide power for 160,000 local families while offsetting emissions by more than 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

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The project site is abundant in sunlight, however, its inclement natural conditions of high temperature, raging sandstorms and highly corrosive environment propose harsh requirements for the reliability of tracking systems. After a thorough assessment, Arctech trackers were chosen; the project will adopt Arctech’s flagship product SkySmart II, the first IEC-certificated multi-point parallel drive tracking system, which can cope with the harsh natural environment and reduce the cost per kilowatt hour of the project significantly.

At the supply agreement signing ceremony, Arctech and CMEC also signed a framework agreement on strategic cooperation. Under the agreement, two companies will strengthen in-depth cooperation in global markets based on mutual benefits and win-win principles.

“We are delighted to work with Arctech again for another benchmark project under the Belt and Road Initiative. In the future, we will further deepen the comprehensive cooperation with Arctech, especially in solar energy, BIPV, and other new energy projects, for resources sharing and advantages complement, improving the global competitiveness ultimately,” CMEC general manager of the 4th Complete Plants Division Yan Weihua said.

Being one of CMEC’s major suppliers, Arctech has supplied the company with trackers for a number of PV projects.

“To win the largest PV project in the Middle East, Arctech invested thousands of hours of engineer resources from offices in China, UAE, and Spain, analysed dozens of tracking system configurations, and submitted more than 30,000 pages of technical documents. Fortunately, our efforts were highly recognised by CMEC and all the relevant parties, for which I’m truly grateful for their trust and support and show my appreciation to our technical, sales, and project teams for their hard work,” Arctech president of global business Guy Rong said.

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“Now it’s time to deliver our commitments to product quality, on-time delivery and services. We believe the project will be successfully connected to the grid on time. Meanwhile, the framework agreement signed today also shows that Arctech and CMEC share extensive common interests and cooperation intentions. We will actively strive to deepen cooperation in more new energy projects and create more values by applying innovative technologies.”

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