John Fitzgerald Weaver for Electrek:  One of the world’s largest solar manufacturers in the world, GCL System Integrated Technology, has designed and sold their first out of the box ready solar farm – the ‘2.5MW Solar Block.’

GCL is a vertically integrated solar manufacturing company – they’re the largest polysilicon manufacturer globally, and along with making solar wafers and cells, they’re involved in solar panel final assembly. Their goal in designing the Solar Block is to lower the cost and speed the deployment of utility-scale solar power. The units can be daisy chained into larger plants.

The first sale of the product was as part of a 5MW project in Australia. The press release says the 5MW project will be built in four months – “Upon the completion of all preparation work, construction will begin in late October, and the whole project will be completed by next February.” Other deals are already signed with customers on multiple continents.

The hardware is specified with either a fixed or a single axis tracker system, 96 cell 415-430W 16% efficient solar panels (pdf), two 1,000kW inverters in a single shipping container, all the wiring needed plus – as added options – a full range of O&M services. In the ‘optimized’ Super 2.5MW Solar Block, single axis tracking and 425W solar panels are specified. The documentation specifies that an output gain of 10-30%, depending on location, is expected over the single axis tracking system.  Full Article: