OCI Solar Power, a utility-scale solar developer, recently served as the EPC while upgrading its Alamo 2 solar farm.
The 4.4 MW AC project sits on 45 acres of land and began operating in March 2014. After eight years of maintaining the solar farm, responding to a steady number of mechanical failures, and witnessing new and emerging tracker technology in action, OCI Solar Power undertook a second upgrade in which it also performed the EPC scope of work.
“We found ourselves repairing trackers and then fixing them again days later because of mechanical issues. It was very similar to what our Alamo 1 solar farm located south of San Antonio was experiencing a few years ago,” says Jason Thompson, construction manager for OCI Solar Power. “Now both solar farms have state-of-the-art trackers from Array Technologies Inc. and increased production.”
OCI Solar Power finished a renovation to its 39.2 MW AC Alamo 1 solar facility in 2019 and completed its six-month upgrade at Alamo 2 in Q4 2022. Similar to the previous upgrade project at Alamo 1, the upgrade at Alamo 2 was done in sections. This allowed the solar farm to stay partially energized so that it could continue providing power to CPS Energy, a public power, natural gas and electric company.
