Connecting France’s largest solar plant

France’s largest solar plant, with a total installed capacity of 105 MWp, is the Toul-Rosières Solar Park project located on a former military base near the city of Nancy in the Lorraine region. Developed by the French renewable energy provider EDF Energies Nouvelles, the photovoltaic power plant covers an area of more than 400 hectares and will generate 105 MWp which is enough to provide for the electric power needs of a town with 62,000 inhabitants. It is estimated that the plant will help to save around 11,500 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Leading manufacturer of electrical connectors and contact systems Multi-Contact were invited to provide connectors and cables for the project.

The project comprises 1,4000,000 thin-film modules, equipped with Multi-Contact connectors; 80% with MC4 and 20% with MC3. There are 2500 combiner boxes to monitor the performance of every string, located between the solar modules and the inverters, which are equipped with MC4 panel receptacles.

Multi-Contact offered a strong technical collaboration on the project to ensure that the best solution was provided. In addition to provision of cables and connectors, the company provided additional services including logistics and local support to other vendors and stakeholders including the design developer, module manufacturer and several installer companies. Delivery on the project was required over a three-month period in order to commence generating power within a very short time frame.

The MC4 specification and non-compatibility assessment in the French electro standard UTE C15-712-1 mandatory guide allowed Multi-Contact to be the unique supplier for MC4 original connectors for the modules.

Multi-Contact’s ability to offer complete solutions for module producers down to the final installation made them the ideal vendor. In order to simplify and shorten the labour-intensive and time-consuming assembly, Multi-Contact delivered customised mounted branch cable leads, cut to the required length for on-site PV installation. This is an ideal solution for relatively large installations with regularly spaced PV modules.

The project comprised; over 4000 pairs of branch cable leads, 2400 pairs of cable assemblies in various lengths, 23,000 pairs of MC3 connectors and 50,000 pairs of extra MC4 connectors.

The benefit to the customer of using Multi-Contact was complete compliance with connection standards and installation guide requirements and on-time delivery.