NOTUS Energy Commissions First Solar Park In Mexico

The “Autódromo 1” solar park in Mexico will sell its electricity directly via day-ahead trading on the Mexican electricity exchange. State-of-the-art solar technology with trackers and bifacial, monocrystalline panels ensure a high annual electricity yield for the 0.5 megawatt plant.

“For Notus, the “Autódromo 1″ solar farm is an important pilot project in a country where we see good prospects for the construction of further solar plants and wind farms,” says Heiner Röger, managing director of NOTUS energy, an independent power producer based in Potsdam.

The plant’s electricity is sold directly on the Mexican power exchange by the energy trading company E2M Energy to Market (Mexico City). This is because there is no subsidy or guaranteed government compensation in the Latin American country.

“Thanks to the excellent natural conditions for solar and wind in Mexico, renewables are already the cheapest form of power generation in Mexico,” Röger explains. At more than 2,100 kWh/m2, solar radiation in the region exceeds the best locations in Europe.

State-of-the-Art Solar Technology, High Yields

The park went online on March 19, 2021, after a construction period of just two months. NOTUS used state-of-the-art technology to achieve this: a tracker system constantly aligns the solar modules optimally with the position of the sun, thus guaranteeing the greatest possible solar irradiation.

The cell type used is monocrystalline, bifacial cells. These “bifacial” cells can also convert the light that is reflected from the ground onto their rear side into electricity. To do this, the back of the cells is made of glass instead of a layer that does not transmit light, such as metal.

NOTUS has been active in Mexico since 2010 and built the “Autódromo 1” solar park together with Goldbeck Solar from Baden-Württemberg. The park occupies an area of 1.5 hectares in the municipality of Villa de Zaragoza and is located right next to a car race track – hence the name “Autódromo”. There is space for a second solar park at the site. The nearest city is San Luis Potosí, about 350 kilometers north of Mexico City. The Bajio region is also known as the location of many companies in the automotive and aviation
industries.