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North America | May 26, 2023

ENEL Green Power chooses Cargill’s FR3 fluid

ENEL Green Power chooses SPL transformers filled with FR3 fluid to further their solar power sustainability goals.

Source: Cargill

USA, Minnesota: ENEL Green Power chooses SPL transformers filled with FR3 fluid to further their solar power sustainability goals.

ENEL Green Power (EGP), one of the world’s largest and most innovative renewable power developers, started a project to determine a better transformer for their ambitious “net zero” strategy to eliminate carbon emissions by 2040. EGP previously used only mineral oil-filled and dry-type transformers in their solar power plants, but now wanted a more sustainable, more reliable, and higher performing transformer to use in their future solar projects. They chose Sustainable Peak Load (SLP) transformers filled with Cargill’s FR3® dielectric fluid for the first time in their 136 MW VIDCO Cluster Solar projects in Spain.

Solar plants have become larger and generate more power. Mineral oil-filled and dry-type transformers have limitations that make it difficult to increase their power density while also managing to integrate them into existing infrastructure due to their size. Also, as mineral oil is derived from petrochemicals, it is not a sustainable fluid. Utilizing a SPL transformer, designed for operation at higher temperatures to get more power density, and filled with a sustainable biodegradable ester insulating fluid that withstands higher heat and overcomes load fluctuations better, helped EGP achieve their net zero goals.

“As we got further into our research and realized that a biodegradable ester fluid could not only help lower our CO₂ footprint, but also help increase the power density and performance of the transformer, it became clear that this was the insulating fluid we wanted to use to help achieve our goals,” said Silvia Gasperetti, Head of the EGP Circular Economy Unit.

After much analysis, EGP decided to use FR3 fluid because it is entirely biodegradable, carbon neutral, and has high temperature capabilities, providing more reliability and higher loading capacity, as well as excellent fire safety and moisture handling.

The result of EGP’s study was that they managed to design an SPL transformer that uses natural ester at a cost that is the same, or even lower than mineral oil transformers. SPL transformers pack more power in the same size, thus managing to save valuable materials and, when filled with natural ester, also help eliminate CO².