We’ve made significant progress on the construction of the Rincon Solar 1 solar farm outside of Savannah, Georgia, since we posted our first project update in June. In fact, the 21.24 MWDC (18.36 MWAC) 1000 V power plant is ready for testing and commissioning to begin in September. Rincon will soon be delivering clean energy to Georgia Power as part of the utility’s power purchase agreement with owner-operator AES Distributed Energy.
Along with our construction partners, Gregory Electric, we’ve completed the installation of the posts, racking, trackers, panels, combiner boxes, inverters, and transformers. The re-greening of the arrays has begun as well, with the grass seeding starting to come in. The substation has also been completed and is operational, with the 35 KV cable connecting the solar farm to the substation and Georgia Power utility grid in place and ready for transmission.
Speaking of that bill of materials for the project, here’s a rundown of what has been deployed: 11,487 posts, 64 trackers, 67,284 modules, 162 combiner boxes, 27 inverters, and 16 transformers. Kudos to our team for the excellent logistical execution of delivering all those components and systems to the work site.
The construction of the Rincon solar farm was not without its challenges, especially the ones bestowed by Mother Nature. From mid-May through the end of June, the site received 6-plus inches of rain per week. During that time, Tropical Storm Bonnie blew through and closed US 95.
Like clockwork during this rainy period, we would be slammed with 2 to 5 inches in one storm, get the site mostly dried out, and then bam! another storm would roll in. There was a two-week period when the drainage ditch on both sides of the main road overflowed; as we discovered, it’s tough to drain a swamp—or walk on one. At one point, a project manager sank in the mud up to his knee and lost his boot.
Despite the soggy conditions, Inovateus and our partners have nearly reached the finish line on Rincon Solar 1. As the embedded drone video shows, the project is a beautiful example of how a solar power plant can blend with the surrounding countryside. Once it’s completed, commissioned and interconnected, Rincon will be the largest single solar farm in Inovateus’ portfolio.
But not for long: construction on the even-bigger Lapeer solar farm project north of Detroit is well past the halfway point, and the power plant should be up and running before the end of the year.
By John Gulanick, Field Installation Supervisor, Inovateus Solar
