By Juan Alberto González 

My name is Juan, and I’m a Proposal Manager at Ideematec, predominately looking after Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and South American projects. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Olivares site with a customer and Managing Director, Robin Mota.

I was completely blown away by what I saw. I knew that the site was on a mountain-side, but before I saw it in person, it was hard to grasp the full extent of the slopes.

Olivares is a 50MW PV plant in the south of Spain. The nearest city is Jaén, which is visible in the distance. The hilly terrain is particularly challenging in this mountainous region, and Ideematec trackers were chosen for the site as they eliminated the need for costly grading works.

The outer boundaries of the construction area were uneven, and Ideematec’s flexible table configuration allowed the system to be designed in a way that maximized the use of this space.
 
OHLA Group is the EPC, Trina Solar is the project developer and construction financier, and the end customer is Matrix Renewables. The site is in the final stages of construction and almost ready to be commissioned.

I have been working with Ideematec since last September, but have been in the solar industry since 2016. During this time, I have visited many sites, but I have never seen anything like this.

Other manufacturers state that they can cater to slopes, but generally there are a number of ‘special conditions’ attached. It was quite amazing to see the Ideematec trackers positioned at a 20º angle (36% slope), something I never though possible before my time at Ideematec. And although I knew we could do it, until I saw it in reality it was hard to understand just how amazing that was. There are no caveats – when we say we do it, we do it! I took plenty of photos so I could share this amazing spectacle.

Photo credit: Juan Alberto González and Renato Topolovec