As part of an intense agenda, Governor Sergio Uñac inaugurated on Tuesday the Guañizuil 2A (G2A) Solar Park, the largest in the Province of San Juan and the third in the country, located in Las Flores, Iglesia, in an area of 270 hectares near National Route 150. It did so jointly with Equinor and Scatec, companies with Norwegian capital. The complex has an installed capacity of 117 MW and the potential to power more than 80,000 homes. The event was chaired by Sergio Uñac, accompanied by the Norwegian Ambassador to Argentina, Lars Vaagen; the mayor of Iglesia, Jorge Espejo; the Minister of Public Works Julio Ortiz Andino; the Secretary of the Environment, Raúl Tello; provincial deputies Miguel Montaño and Mauro Marinero; the president of EPSE, Víctor Doña and president in charge of EPRE, Oscar Trad; undersecretaries and directors of the Provincial Executive Power; Nidia Alvarez, president of Equinor and president of the Cordillera Solar VIII Board of Directors and Franco Martín, country manager of Scatec.Governor Uñac began his speech by thanking all those present and especially the representatives of the two companies stating that this type of inaugurations “mean more than growth, here there is the possibility of being able to intertwine the economy and make a service available to citizens. This process has been grounded in a deep personal belief that the State must be at the service of the private sector. With that synergy it can be achieved perfectly and that is when the results begin to be glimpsed.”
Then, he affirmed that “maintaining these conditions over time as true State policies will allow investment to arrive, that it can be maintained, that we can generate this perfect partnership absolutely tender between a government and companies, to generate economic movement and sources of work.” In this context, the San Juan president shared with those present that “the people of San Juan have allowed ourselves to plan in the province, we did not start diversifying our economic matrix. We went from being absolutely winemaking fact that we do and continue to do with great pride, we went on to incorporate in the 90s through a national law, industrial promotion and industry, which today are a reality. We manufacture medicines, we make high mountain clothing, we have one of the three plants that the Lacoste factory maintains in the world, it maintains in France, Japan and in these lands, we incorporate mining being the first producers of gold, the first exporters of lime throughout the national territory and those who have the largest copper exploitation project. In San Juan, tourism is a reality, renewable energies are a reality and medical cannabis is also a reality.” Then, he reported the progress of work of the future solar panel factory that the province will be able to hold.
“In short, those who decide to invest in San Juan have opted for a province that has legal stability, that has a balanced budget, that has a present and a future,” said Governor Uñac.
In turn, Gustavo Baquero, Senior Vice President of International Strategy and Business Development of Equinor said that “it gives us a deep pride to be investment partners in G2A, a solar project made a reality. This Solar Park is a true example of our business purpose: to convert natural resources into energy for people and into progress for society.”
For his part, Franco Martín, country manager of Scatec Argentina and director of Cordillera Solar VIII, indicated that “as transformers of reality and we are currently committed to contributing to the expansion of clean energy. That is what we do, following the highest international parameters in sustainability. As operators, Scatec has led this project during the initial phase and will now participate in the commercial operation. We are also proud to work together with a co-sponsor like Equinor, a world leader in energy. The Province of San Juan, like other regions in Argentina, has unique renewable resources and, therefore, we hope to continue growing in joint projects with national and provincial authorities.” Continuing with the words, Nidia Alvarez, president of Equinor in Argentina and of the Board of the Cordillera Solar VIII society, said that “it is a privilege to officially inaugurate G2A. Argentina has enormous potential in renewable energies and today we are taking an important step in line with Equinor’s vision in Argentina, where we build our portfolio providing energy from hydrocarbons in the province of Neuquén, exploreoffshore the province of Buenos Aires and solar in the province of San Juan, and evaluating other renewable energy opportunities in the country. I want to express our gratitude to Governor Uñac and the people of San Juan for being part of this historic project.” Next, Mayor Espejo added that “San Juan has a very large amount of photovoltaic generation, it is one of the main ones in the country and has a very high solar radiation. The importance of this valley for solar radiation is that it is very dry, at a significant altitude (2500m) and the humidity of the atmosphere does not absorb solar radiation so it has a very high level of radiation and the panel has a very high performance.” It should be noted that Cordillera Solar VII SA is the company that owns the G2A Solar Park and who signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Wholesale Electricity Market Management Company (Cammesa), under its Renovar Renewable Energy program in 2017.
