Ege Haina opens the Girasol Solar Park, the largest in the Antilles
The Dominican Republic President, Luis Abinader, led the inauguration of the Girasol (Sunflower) Solar Park of the Haina Electricity Generating Company (EGE HAINA), in Yaguate, San Cristóbal, built with an investment of around 100 million dollars.
“Something extremely important and necessary in our country after so many years of erratic management with regard to the production and distribution of electricity nationwide”, said the president.
It is the sixth renewable energy plant in Ege Haina, and it was built in a period of 14 months and, according to its promoters, a total of 820 people worked on the development of this photovoltaic plant.
President Abinader, and Minister of Energy and Mines Antonio Almonte, positively valued the importance of this project for the National Interconnected Electric System, SENI.
The project
The Girasol Solar Park project was built on an area of 220 hectares, where they installed 268,200 panels, with a total capacity of 120 megawatts and it is estimated that it will produce 240,000 MWh per year, to supply the electricity consumption of more than 100,000 Dominican homes.
According to the developers, the Sunflower avoids the emission into the atmosphere of 150,000 tons of CO2 annually and the import of 400,000 barrels of oil, which contributes to mitigating the effects of climate change and represents savings in foreign exchange, respectively.
With this new project, EGE Haina reaches a joint installed renewable energy capacity of 300 MW, from its wind and solar plants.
It uses a modern system of solar position trackers or “trackers”, unique in the country, that rotate 104 degrees throughout twelve hours a day, depending on the solar displacement to guarantee better use of irradiation, which translates in an increase of its effective capacity.
“We have a clear path and we are making good progress in our growth plan to 2030, which will contribute to the energy balance of the Dominican Republic, producing electricity in an efficient and environmentally responsible way, reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels”, said Luis Mejía Brache, general manager of EGE Haina, who highlighted the relevance of this park that will increase the national photovoltaic capacity by 50%.
He specified that in the production of renewable energy (wind and solar) they represent the main source of generation in their own installed capacity, with 34.5% of the total.
The start-up, according to its general manager, consolidates the leadership of the company in the Antilles in non-conventional renewable energy.
He specified that EGE Haina’s strategy is aligned with the projections of population and economic growth, and agreed with the national commitments regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more specifically the SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy, and SDG 13: climate action.”