Sungrow supplies inverters for Wyoming’s first large solar plant

Southeastern Wyoming is a tough place. In Green River, the seat of Sweetwater County, the temperatures have risen to as high as 105 F in the summer and -42 in the winter – although it typically only gets to the 80s in the summer, and single digits in the winter.

But the high, dry plains also offer excellent sunlight, and it is here that the project development subsidiary of Hanwha Q Cells is building the state’s first large-scale solar plant. As further evidence of the plant’s progress, yesterday Sungrow formally announced that it is supplying a turnkey power conversion solution featuring its 2.75 MW SG2500U-MV inverters for the 80 MW-AC Sweetwater project, as well as transformers.

The company notes that these inverters are able to perform will full power from -30 C (-22 F) to 60 C (140 F), a range that should accommodate most of the harsh shifts that the Sweetwater Solar plant is likely to see over its lifetime.

The timeline of the project is also unclear. A January 2017 presentation seen by pv magazine indicated that the project would be substantially complete by October, but given the timing of inverter supply that is highly unlikely. The Sweetwater Solar project will sell the electricity it generates to Rocky Mountain Power under a 20-year contract.