First Solar announced the opening of a new Operation Center in Berlin. The new Operation Center is First Solar’s third facility of its kind around the world and will be managed and operated by its subsidiary, skytron® energy.
The Berlin Center is established to provide First Solar’s PV products, solutions and services to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. It is manned by a specially trained team that will supervise the ongoing operation of power plants under management; tracking performance, detecting and diagnosing issues, and scheduling and advising on-site activities. The facility is also capable of energy forecasting and ensuring that power plants under management conform to grid requirements.
"Photovoltaic solar's emergence as a mainstream power generation resource, particularly in competitive markets, has made professional and focused Operations and Maintenance (O&M) more relevant than ever before,” said Troy Lauterbach, First Solar's Vice President for Global O&M. “PV plants are now recognized as high value assets; their owners are focused on ensuring that they are optimized to reliably deliver the energy necessary to ensure profitable returns to investors."
First Solar is currently providing O&M services to approximately 4,000MW of PV plants in the world, ranging from 2MWac to 550MWac in capacity. The Berlin Operation Center will offer services in one of the world’s fastest growing markets by bringing higher profitability as well as optimized performance to customers in the EMEA region.
First Solar has established its position as one of the leaders in Western Europe through skytron energy, and the Berlin Operation Center represents the company’s strategy to enter into the EMEA market. skytron energy was founded in 1977 and was acquired by First Solar in 2014. It provides utility-scale PV monitoring, controlling and supervision system to solar power plants, supporting more than 6,000MW of utility-scale assets globally.
