On July 13th, 2022, Claresholm Solar farm in Southern Alberta, one of the largest solar power plant of Canada, held its inauguration of grid connection, which has been successfully commissioned and started daily operation of electricity power generation. Astronergy delivered over 180 MWdc ASTRO series PV panels for this project.
The Claresholm Solar farm locates 13km southeast of Claresholm town in the municipal district of Willow Creek in southern Alberta. With a total investment of C$200m ($162.76m), this farm occupies 1,280 acres of agricultural land and planning an installation of 132 MWac. 455,758 Astronergy PV panels shipped from China to Canada since 2020 to be installed in a fixed-tilt racking structure.
The Claresholm Solar farm is expected to directly reduce CO2 emissions of around 149,000 metric tons yearly when it starts to work. Meanwhile, approximately 33,000 households nearby can benefit from the generated renewable power.
Claresholm Solar is a joint venture between Capstone Infrastructure, a renewable energy investment company based in Canada, and Obton, a Danish investment company involved in the development of solar and wind power projects.
"I'd like to highlight Astronergy as the supplier and manufacturer of Claresholm Solar's bi-facial panels, which are the most advanced technology available in the market. And I'd like to emphasize the significant increase in generation capacity and efficiency of the panels supplied by Astronergy for the project. Our experience working with Astronergy on Claresholm Solar gave us a high level of confidence in terms of quality and ability to deliver, which is why the company has been selected for two more solar projects currently in development (Kneehill and Michichi)", said David Eva, CEO of Capstone Infrastructure.
The Astronergy panels supplied for this Claresholm Solar project is ASTRO Series reinforced bifacial module with double glass (front side 2.5mm tempered and rear side 2.5mm semi-tempered). Enhanced with excellent encapsulation structure and strengthened frame, this type is specially designed for severe hail (45mm, 30.7m/s), and unfriendly environments with high-reliability requirements. The module has passed severe Damp & Heat 2000hours and Thermal Cycle 600 and PID 300 tests which were verified and approved by CSA certificate-C450 and PVEL certificate-PQP.
Claresholm Solar Farm[Photo from Astronergy]
"We are pleased to join this project to build the largest solar PV farm so far in Canada. We set up a special sales team to follow up the entire process including communications, production, quality control, shipment, installation and etc. We had very good cooperation experience with Capstone Infrastructure." Said Samuel Zhang, vice president of Astronergy, global sales, and marketing.