OCI SOLAR POWER: Major upgrade of Alamo 1 solar farm leads to increased performance

The Alamo 1 solar farm sits on 445 acres of private land on San Antonio's south side. It began operations in December 2013, was upgraded in 2019, and has a capacity of 39.2 MWac.
The Alamo 1 solar farm sits on 445 acres of private land on San Antonio's south side. It began operations in December 2013, was upgraded in 2019, and has a capacity of 39.2 MWac.

OCI Solar Power issued the following announcement on Dec. 20.

A first-of-its-kind renovation has significantly improved the overall performance and reliability of OCI Solar Power's Alamo I solar farm, located on San Antonio's south side.

"Alamo I is now equipped with industry-leading tracker technology and a block of bifacial modules which will be used for field testing and data-gathering," said Jason Thompson, Construction Manager for OCI Solar Power.

As part of the upgrade, OCI Solar power replaced all the trackers with new state-of-the-art trackers from Array Technologies, Inc. and utilized the existing infrastructure of the solar farm, including the foundation, inverters, and balance-of-system.

OCI Solar Power also worked with Swinerton Builders, an accomplished engineering, procurement and construction company, and KACO new energy, a pioneer in inverter technology, for nearly nine months to complete the improvements.

"An upgrade of this magnitude is definitely a first for us and perhaps for the entire solar industry," said Charles Kim, President & CEO. "We were able to get the job done without de-energizing the entire project, and we are extremely proud of the outcome. Because of our success with this project, we are looking for other upgrade project opportunities."

Alamo I sits on 445 acres of private land at 2361 S. Blue Wing Road. It began operations in December 2013 and has a capacity of 39.2 MWac.

OCI Solar Power is a leader in the solar power industry. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, OCI Solar Power develops, constructs, finances, owns, and operates solar photovoltaic  facilities, specializing in utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects throughout the U.S. OCI Solar Power was the first company to bring utility-scale solar project to Texas and we are the largest developer in the state to date, having completed 650 MWdc.

Original source can be found here.