Hybrid Energy Supply for the city of Cobija, Bolivia
Minimizing Fuel Costs and CO2 emissions with the SMA Fuel Save Solution
The world’s largest PV-diesel hybrid power plant system with battery storage was commissioned in December 2014, in the Bolivian province of Pando. SMA is not only supplying photovoltaic inverters for this project, but is also providing an SMA Fuel Save Controller for demand-driven control of solar power feed-in, and four newly developed inverters for large-scale battery storage systems.
This PV-diesel hybrid power plant system with battery storage has an output of approximately 5MW. It was specifically designed to generate enough clean solar power to cover approximately half of the energy demand of the provincial capital of Cobija and its neighboring towns in northern Bolivia during daytime hours. The residents and companies in this area consume about 37 GWh of energy per year – and the rate is steadily increasing. Since the region is not connected to the public utility grid, power for the local grid was produced exclusively by diesel generators in the past.
