AEG Power Solutions wins frame agreement for 260 MW PV power plant equipment

WARSTEIN-BELECKE, GERMANY: AEG Power Solutions has been awarded a major PV contract for utility scale equipment of globally 260 MW.

Starting December 2010, over a period of one year, AEG PS will provide complete balance of electrical system for 13 PV power plants in Eastern Europe, each of 20 Mega Watts. AEG Power Solutions, wholly-owned by 3W Power Holdings S.A., is a global provider of premium power electronics.

AEG PS will design and supply its solution TKS-C, shelter containing: Solar Inverter, monitoring and supervising equipment, transformer and medium voltage switchgear. Being part of the balance of electrical system, AEG PS supplies further Combiner boxes and the PV power monitoring and control solution AEG Power Solutions will commission the equipment on site.

“We were awarded this contract because we could provide the complete solutions with a combination of premium equipment, the Protect PV.250 and PV.500 with leading edge supervision and monitoring solutions, through our skytron subsidiary,” comments Enrique de la Cruz, Vice President of the Solar Division of AEG Power Solutions. “Our alliance with skytron has created positive synergies and allows us to offer attractive solutions to EPCs.”

The inverter used in this solution will initially be the Protect PV.250, renowned for its premium efficiency, and in the second phase of the project, the next product in the Protect line, the Protect PV.500. The Protect PV.250 is experiencing a constant demand growth since its launched one year ago.

“Currently sales for this product are far exceeding initial targets, we have already installed more than 13 MW and plan to install a further 60 MW for the year,” explains de La Cruz, “components shortages are our immediate challenge, as with most of our competitors.”

AEG PS started developing solar products and solutions based on its sound power electronics knowldege two years ago leveraging its recognized expertise in power control solutions for the poly silicon industry. Since then, the company has been implementing its strategy to develop a position in the renewable energies business and capture meaningful profitable growth opportunities especially in the promising solar end markets.

The global market for large PV inverters in the range of Protect PV.250 & PV.500 are expected to grow by 40 percent over the next three years.

“We see a growing interest in more countries adopting feed in tariffs to build up local experience and knowledge. For example, the UK recently adopted an attractive tariff and it is expected Lithuania will also introduce a feed in tariff regime in the next couple of months. As some traditionally attractive countries like Germany decrease their tariffs, these more mature markets are showing more focus on utility scale PV power plants to support grid infrastructure, where we have focus our premium offering."