The largest rooftop PV plant in Mexico and the second-largest in all of Latin America is under construction in the state of Jalisco for Mexican manufacturer Ingusa Group. When complete, the plant will have a capacity of 3.4 MW.
Mexican renewable energy business Depsa is in charge of the installation, and estimates that it will save Ingusa up to 180 million pesos (US$10 million) in electricity costs over the useful life of the plant.
The project is too large for Mexicos net metering program, which is capped at 500 kW. It will instead supply electricity under the nations self-consumption program, which predates the recent energy reform.
The Ingusa project was begun in November 2015 and is 75% complete. Aluminum mounting structures have been installed, and part of the project is already in operation. Currently, a block installed on the roof of the Ingusa Tanks plant comprising 4,129 PV modules has been put online.
The installation will occupy a total of 35,800 square meters of roof surface. The system will consist of 13,203 Risen Energy PV modules and 140 Ginlong Solis inverters. The daily generation of the system is estimated at 5.5 megawatt-hours, enough to supply electricity to 4,000 homes.
The project is which is being installed on the factories of Ingusa Tanks, Ingusa Valves and Ingusa Alsa, which belong to the Ingusa Group in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Depsa will install part of the project for the factories of Ingusa, which produces distinct types of tanks, valves and cylinders.
This project is the largest rooftop installation in an advanced stage of construction in Mexico. The only rooftop PV plant that is larger in Latin America is a 5 MW project in Puerto Rico, but the Ingusa project is only slightly bigger than a 3 MW project online in Honduras. While a 350 MW project is planned for steel producer Deacero in Northern Mexico, there are no reports of the Deacero project beginning construction.
According to estimates by Mexicos National Solar Energy Association (ANES), in 2015 100 MW of solar PV was installed in Mexico. Over half of this was projects under 500 kW, and Mexico has by far the largest distributed solar market in Latin America.
Translation and additional reporting by Christian Roselund. For the original article in Spanish, please see the pv magazine Latinoamérica website.
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