400 MW for San Antonio: ground-breaking ceremony held

San Antonio / Neckarsulm, 08 March 2013 – In early March, KACO new energy and its consortium partners celebrated the start of construction on the first part of the San Antonio project, which will deliver a total of 400 MW of solar power once completed. By the end of the year, the 41 MW tranche will provide electricity for 7,000 households to CPS Energy, the city of San Antonio’s utility company.

Alamo I, as the initial 41 MW solar park is known, represents the first phase of major solar power plants that will develop around San Antonio by 2016. On Blue Wing Road, south of the city of San Antonio, KACO new energy, OCI Solar Power, and the other consortium partners broke ground for the 400 MW project in a truly stormy ceremony: buffeted by hefty winds, high-ranking officials from the companies took their turns with the shovel. This was followed by a toast to the largest photovoltaic project in Texas by more than 100 participants.

This first section covers an area measuring 2.4 km x 1 km. “This is very impressive when one considers that this area only represents the first 10 percent of the entire project scope. We are extremely pleased and proud to work on this unique PV project,” says Dorko Eliaszewskyj, CEO of KACO new energy USA. KACO new energy will provide the solar park with integrated power stations (IPS), which are ready-assembled units that feature two Powador XP550-HV TL outdoor inverters, a medium voltage transformer, and all the requisite circuit breakers.

Tony Dorazio, CEO of OCI Solar Power, is also delighted by the start of this joint venture: “The beginning was a success and OCI Solar Power will do everything it can to ensure that we can say the same when the project is completed. With Alamo I we are sowing the seeds that we hope will grow into an age of solar power throughout the US. We consider the San Antonio project a blueprint for successful public-private partnerships in the field of renewable energy.” This mainly refers to the 25-year power procurement contract with CPS Energy, which will provide 70,000 households with clean energy once the entire project is finished.

San Antonio’s mayor, Julian Castro, is also pleased by the positive outlook for his city: “San Antonio is fast becoming a leader in the New Energy Economy. This phase of the project is only the first of many milestones to come bringing good-paying jobs and fostering economic development and sustainable energy for our community and state."

About KACO new energy:
KACO new energy is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of grid-tie inverters for feeding solar energy. The company offers a comprehensive range of solar inverters for everything from single-family homes to multi-megawatt solar farms. KACO new energy is based in Neckarsulm, Germany and has been producing inverters with a cumulative capacity of nearly six gigawatts since 1999. KACO new energy was the first company in the photovoltaic industry to manufacture inverters (the Powador model) in a completely CO2-neutral way. In addition to grid-tie and battery-based solar inverters, the company also supplies inverters for combined heat and power plants and concentrator modules as well as energy storage systems for solar power plants.

Contact:
KACO new energy GmbH
Andreas Schlumberger
Head of Corporate Communications
Carl-Zeiss-Str. 1
74172 Neckarsulm, Germany
Phone +49 7132 3818-0
Fax +49 7132 3818-703
pr@kaco-newenergy.de
www.kaco-newenergy.de

This release was published on openPR.