THE local business of Conergy Inc. cited its Hamburg, Germany-headquartered parent’s market analysis has noted the waning productivity of solar farms in the Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region.
“Common flaws in solar-farm operations include a lack of real-time data analytics, slow repair times, unavailability of spare parts, insufficient skills of technicians that delay proper identification and troubleshooting of plant faults, overgrown vegetation and panels that are too soiled to maximize exposure,” the company said in a November 29 statement.
“We believe some of the Philippines’s solar farms can perform much better than they do today, so we are making an investment in the operations and maintenance side of our business,” Conergy CEO Alexander Lenz was quoted in a statement as saying. “Solar farms in the Philippines have tremendous potential. But, like any asset, they need to be cared for.”
Lenz added the company believes some Philippine solar farms may be losing thousands of kilowatt-hours [kWh] and millions of pesos per year. “This is an issue we can fix in partnership with solar-farm operators. And we are fully confident we can help recoup this lost energy and bring investment returns back up to full capacity,” he said. “Our promise is to fully erase productivity flaws from solar-farm investors who work with us.”
These flaws are major issues for solar-farm investors, according to the company.
For example, a solar farm that has the potential to generate 100,000 kWh per year may achieve this target in the first year, then, as operational issues arise, the kWh per year could fall to 60,000 in the second year. If the issues are not properly addressed, efficiency will continue to fall.
“We know that this type of scenario is common within the solar industry in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, and can be fixed with a proactive approach,” Steffen Hesche, Conergy vice president for operations and maintenance, added.
To date, Conergy has installed a total of 274 megawatts peak (MWp) of solar capacity across the country, enabling the supply of electricity to the equivalent of 171,300 Filipino homes.
To address the issues Conergy raised, it invested in building an Asia-Pacific monitoring center in Manila, upgraded software used to monitor solar farm performance 24/7 and added headcount to the operations and maintenance units serving the Philippines and the region.
Conergy tracks performance 24/7 and alerts the Conergy operations and maintenance team when repairs and service are required.