The province not only has the best place in the world to generate solar energy, Tocota, the church town where several solar parks are concentrated in 12 thousand hectares, but it produces in many other key points taking advantage of its natural conditions. In total there are 21 plants in operation, making it the leading producer in the country. To this is now added another phenomenon: individuals – institutions, companies and houses -, who are also committed to generating energy to lower costs and contribute to the planet.
In just 13 years, San Juan has become the province with the largest number of solar parks installed and the first generator of photovoltaic energy in the country. In this way, it went from being an energy importer to being an exporter/importer node, to the point that one can begin to dream of generating all of the local demand. Added to this panorama is now that there are already 94 generating users (individuals, institutions and companies), who have joined by installing solar panels that allow them to reduce costs in the future, divert energy to other properties and inject the surplus into the system and then receive the corresponding compensation. This without referring to the search for clean energies that contribute a grain of sand to the current environmental difficulties.
It all began in April 2011 when San Juan inaugurated the first photovoltaic solar energy plant in South America called San Juan 1. The second, located in Cañada Honda, arrived the following year although this recently started process slowed down until 2016. Only then , thanks to the RenovAR system, the tenders began in which the province had great participation.
They gradually grew, with different technical modalities, to the point that in 2022 there were 16 operating and currently there are 21 that total 547.4 MW.
“Around 40 percent of the parks in operation are in the province, 50 percent of the total are also here (including those that are not yet operating), and of course, in terms of energy generation we are the ones that produce the most. . Following us from afar, Jujuy with a 300 MW State plant and then Salta with three private parks. San Juan, unlike those provinces, has a mix because there are private parks, others from EPSE and others mixed, which means that they have chosen us for many conditions,” explains engineer Lucas Estada, current president of Energía Provincial Sociedad del State EPSE-, with headquarters in Pocito.
The reason why the province is at the forefront of solar energy generation is not only because of the excellent conditions of the solar resource -both irradiation and heliophany-, but also because it has sufficient space for its installation and, of course, the political management that has been developed during these years and continues in the current management.
At the end of the 21 plants in operation, there are two others awarded, two in the project and the Ullum Alfa Solar Park under construction, that is, a total of 27.
“The mechanism to sell solar energy was through State tenders, with prices that had to be competed and paid by CAMMESA (Company Administrator of the Wholesale Electrical Market S.A). But then in 2018, the MATER – Renewable Energy Term Market – was implemented, which allows contracts to be made between private parties and any user of the wholesale electricity market can buy renewable energy – solar, wind, geothermal, or whatever, and the conditions They are different because they agree on prices and terms among themselves. The State only regulates these contracts. All of this lowers the risks, it is competitive, reasons that favored the installation of new parks,” explains Estrada.
Based on this decision, solar energy is currently the most competitive on the market because instead of paying the price established by CAMMESA – which is variable with very high peaks -, a private individual can sign a term contract with an energy generator. solar. “Thus, a variable cost becomes a known cost that can even be fixed for years, which is a tremendous advantage,” says the president of EPSE.
Can private users generate their own energy?
Almost everyone knows that large solar parks sell their production to users in the wholesale electricity market and all those below the distributors who are called “captive users” buy from any distributor, be it Energía San Juan (now Naturgy), DECSA , EDESUR or whoever is responsible at the place of residence. Then the invoice arrives with the amount of energy consumed and a fee for network maintenance operations, fees and taxes. So far what is known. But for some time now some things have changed: “These consumers are within the distributed generation law that allows any captive user in the Argentine Republic to install solar or wind generation systems, although in general it is solar because it is simpler, and to compensate the with the network. This is implemented in San Juan through a law of adherence to the aforementioned national standard. That is what has allowed users with T2 and T3 rates to install systems that are very profitable because the rates have been honest and because the price of the panels has dropped a lot. Now the payback periods for that investment are reasonable. Before you had to think about 9, 10 or 15 years and now they are around 3 to 6 years, depending on the case. Thus, an individual knows that after that time he has free energy, at least until the useful life of the panel is reached, which is 30 years,” Estrada details.
The EPRE – Provincial Electricity Regulatory Entity – is in charge of keeping track of the generating users, which at the close of this edition numbered 94, according to the report provided by this organization, and which also monitors those who have added to this option.
These statistics not only show absolute numbers but also relative numbers that place the province in first place in relation to the number of inhabitants. There are others like Buenos Aires and Córdoba that exceed these absolute amounts but in relation to their population they continue to fall below.
Of course, the more hours of sunshine, the more photovoltaic energy can be generated. It is easy to deduce or know it, what little is known is that San Juan has an average of 2,500 hours of sunshine per year with peaks of 3,000 hours in Tocota and other mountain valleys. Something that does not sound so extraordinary if it is not known that the rest of the world is below two thousand hours. Just to cite national examples, Buenos Aires and Córdoba arrive (hopefully) at 1750 hours, and San Luis at 1900 hours.
“We call Tocota the photovoltaic Dubai because not only does it have exceptionally good radiation, but it also has very low temperatures and the solar panels lose efficiency – half a percentage point – for every degree Celsius that the temperature increases above 25 degrees. Generally, these two conditions do not go hand in hand, which makes it even more exceptional. It is a condition that occurs in the mountain valleys. That is why Tocota has 12 thousand hectares with panels with a transformer station and a line connected to the national interconnected system. All the most important generators are there and many are in the pipeline because it is the best place in the world,” he adds.
In this town, YPF electricity is installed with 100 megawatts and another with 200 megawatts is in the project, EPSE-GENNEIA, Central Puerto bought Cordillera Solar with 100 megawatts and others are in full projection because they are looking for this privileged site.
Since nothing can be so perfect, there is a limitation: The power transmission capacity because the existing line is at its limit. In other words, if the transportation system is not expanded, much more cannot be produced.
“It is necessary to do it not only for the solar parks but because we must expand our system from San Juan to La Rioja to ring the province. Currently we are connected to the south with Mendoza and to the north we should be linked to Bauchaceta to achieve a ring with the general system and get more power. This is also necessary for copper projects that must be connected to the network and with what there is we could only connect maybe one and very much to the limit.”
With these limitations, the current parks and those under construction are guaranteed to be able to extract energy, but it would be very difficult to invest in new plants.
“Those that are under construction are going to be finished this year, perhaps in the middle of next year because we are seeing how the national electricity market evolves due to the change in direction of the country. Now that there are signs because they are profitable and there will be new projects, but unfortunately until the transportation system has increased I doubt that there will be a large project, by that I mean about 100 megawatts, but it is likely that 20 or 30 megawatts will appear that can use the distributor networks such as Energía San Juan or DECSA,” he adds.
Electrical autonomy
At this point in time, and despite the limitations, it would not be unreasonable to think that San Juan could have energy autonomy, even more so taking into account that since 2017 it has already begun to be an energy export node. This means that the flow of power, instead of coming from Mendoza to here, also goes from here to there, especially between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
“In May I visited Distrocuyo – the main operator of the transportation system – and at 2 in the afternoon San Juan is a purely export node. During much of the year during the mid-day we export energy and import mainly at night. Now in the entire year, that is, taking into account what is injected into the system, we are close to 40 to 50 percent and during the 24th it will be higher. And if we count all those in project and construction we should be one hundred percent in the short term. That is going to happen. What must be made clear is that it will not yet represent a reduction in the rate of captive users because everything goes to the national market and then CAMMESA sells it through distributors at a seasonal price. That is what we ended up paying since there is still no chance for distributors in Argentina to make term contracts with a generator. Although the national government has given signs that we are moving towards that, the possibility is not yet there,” indicates the president of EPSE.
- Advantages for private generators
Solar energy generating users (institutions, companies, homes), which for now are 94 in the province, can not only be self-sufficient but can also inject into the system, if they have a surplus, or what is even better, they can apply those credits to another property that is not the same one where they placed the solar panels.
The system that Argentina adopted is for energy compensation since it is not considered an economic transaction because in that case there would be associated taxes such as VAT and Gross Income, but to simplify the system a compensation system was thought of. “Personally, I think it was a wise decision when they thought about and regulated this scheme because what is seen in the bill at the end of the month is a compensation between the energy demanded at the purchase price versus the energy injected at the injection price. In practice, the energy injected is recognized at almost the same price as that consumed and that generates savings. The important thing is that it is already operational and is regulated by the EPRE, which also took another step with the regulations for offshore distributed generation,” says Estrada.
This implies that if someone lives in an apartment, logically they cannot put solar panels, but if they wanted to do so they can place them in another available place and the energy credits they generate are derived where they need to be assigned to that supply.
Other examples could be cited such as medium-sized companies that place the system in one of the buildings but have others in different places in the province can also derive the
- San Juan has 21 solar parks in operation. They total 547.4 MW together.
- During the hours close to solar noon (1:30 p.m.), in periods of moderate demand, San Juan exports its energy to the SADI (Argentine Interconnection System). There are currently 30 generating plants in San Juan injecting electrical energy into the SADI with a power of 860.96 MW.
- Of this total, 70% is of solar photovoltaic origin with 21 plants, 27% is of hydraulic origin with 8 plants and a thermal plant fed with Natural Gas that operates at times of high demand.
- During the year 2022, San Juan had an energy demand of 2,389,987.56 MWh, of which 805,820.34 MWh were provided by San Juan photovoltaic solar parks, or 33.72%.
- The percentage of demand covered with solar energy in the province of San Juan has been growing steadily since 2018, reaching 46.26% during 2023. This percentage could reach 80% by 2024, when they come into operation the parks under construction (Ullum Alfa, El Algarrobo, Tocota EPSE and Chaguar).
- Regarding installed power, at this moment San Juan has 64% of its generation park coming from photovoltaic solar plants. In any case, if we consider the parks under construction Ullum Alfa and El Chaguar, and the remaining parks to complete YPF’s Zonda project, that percentage will rise to 80%.
- Currently 40% of the solar parks in operation in Argentina are located in San Juan, and adding all the solar projects awarded through the MinniRen and the projects presented through the MATER (Renewable Energy Term Market), San Juan It is in first place in the country in number of projects, with more than 50%.
- 34.1% of all photovoltaic solar energy produced in the country during 2023 was generated by the San Juan sun.
