NRG Systems provides monitoring solutions for Canada’s largest solar farm

Hinesburg, Vermont-based NRG Systems Inc. has provided Solar Resource Monitoring (SRM) Systems to the 465 MW Travers Solar Project in Alberta, Canada.

The turnkey systems capture a range of site-specific parameters, including solar irradiance, module temperature and soiling conditions, as well as albedo, a vital piece in determining the solar energy potential available to the backside of the plant’s bifacial solar modules. Together, the data collected by NRG’s SRM Systems play a critical role in determining the Travers Solar Project’s performance ratio.

The Travers Solar Project is the largest utility-scale PV plant ever installed in Canada. The project was developed by Calgary-based Greengate Power Corp., with PCL leading construction of the 3,300-acre facility. U.S.-based Ulteig, who selected NRG’s technology for the plant’s resource monitoring needs, is overseeing SCADA engineering and integration.

“We have worked extensively with the NRG team and their solar resource measurement solutions. Their systems offer a unique combination of flexibility and repeatability, allowing for project-specific customization within a framework that is easily replicated across a single plant or multiple plants,” said Mike Crawford, Ulteig’s senior market development manager for renewables. “This has been an especially important feature for the Travers project, given the project had strict requirements and contains more than 1 million PV modules across the 3,300 acres. Having reliable meteorological stations distributed across the site is critical to the project’s performance.”

NRG vice president of global sales Gregory Erdmann said deploying SRM Systems as part of the Travers Solar Project was an exciting opportunity for the company.

“In addition to the sheer magnitude of its impact, the project is technically complex, making it a challenge NRG is perfectly suited to take on,” Erdmann said. “Thanks to a collaborative team effort between NRG and Ulteig, we have been able to deliver SRM Systems satisfying some of the most demanding requirements we have seen.”

The Travers Solar Project is fully operational.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: https://solarbuildermag.com/projects/nrg-systems-monitoring-canada-travers-solar-farm/]