Suntech's Reliathon Reduces Utility Solar Costs, Speeds Development
PV module supplier Suntech Power Holdings announced today its simplified, integrated program for designing and building utility-scale solar plants, combining product innovations with new business agreements to lower total system costs.
Aaron Hand, Editor-in-Chief -- PV Society, 10/21/2009
Leading crystalline silicon PV module supplier Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (Wuxi, China) today rolled out a simplified, integrated program for designing and building utility-scale solar plants. According to Suntech, Reliathon combines product and business innovations to accelerate the path to grid parity, reducing total system costs by as much as 10% and improving the power warranted over the lifetime of the system by 13.8%.
Suntech contends that its new integrated solution is an overhaul of existing "patchwork" approaches to designing large-scale PV systems. It combines module innovations, a new utility-grade warranty for the modules, and preferential pricing and business terms with inverter and tracking companies Advanced Energy, Array Technologies, Satcon, Siemens Industry and SMA.
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Suntech's Reliathon 270 W module includes self-aligning panels, integrated grounding, wire management, and a Two-in-One design to achieve better output on fixed-tilt systems. |
As part of the product innovations, Suntech's new Reliathon
270 W module includes self-aligning panels, integrated grounding, and wire
management. Its Two-in-One design has two 36-cell regions with independent
circuits to achieve better output on fixed-tilt systems in early morning and
late afternoon. Combined, the module upgrades result in reduced material costs
and less labor time needed to install the systems, according to Suntech.
Array Technologies' DuraTrack system was designed specifically for the Reliathon platform. It further reduces system material costs by using two motors per megawatt of AC vs. the typical four motors per megawatt.
The Reliathon module includes a 25-year utility-grade warranty. A 12-year limited product warranty is an extension from Suntech's previous five-year warranty. A 25-year peak power performance warranty is now based on annual degradation instead of 12- and 25-year step-downs, and provides users with 13.8% more warranted power over 25 years.
Along with the solar module system comes preferred pricing and pre-negotiated business terms with Advanced Energy, Array Technologies, Satcon, Siemens Industry and SMA. In a separate announcement, Advanced Energy noted that its multi-year agreement with Suntech's Reliathon platform includes a range of AE's Solaron PV inverters, Remote PV Tie (RPT) accessories and SafeGuard support and service options.
"To make the promising utility scale pipeline a reality, innovation and simplicity have to be driven into every level of the solar value chain — especially installation, an area that offers huge opportunities for reduction of balance-of-plant costs," said Steven Chan, chief strategy officer at Suntech.
Suntech's latest offering is something that makes sense for the utility market, according to Frank Greb, vice president and general manager of solar engineering and construction firm RMT Inc. (Madison, Wis.). "Reliathon makes it more cost-effective, not to mention easier, to get utility-scale projects up and running."
Reliathon modules and system components will be available for immediate orders, with shipment scheduled in the second quarter of 2010.
