EPC contracting for the 2 GW Alar solar complex in Xinjiang this week saw one 200 MW tranche awarded for just $104 per kW. There’s a curiosity to this project which is that it’s explicitly stated to have exactly the same MWac and MWdc size – 1,000 MW for both. It’s also stated that sets of twenty-six 550-Watt modules will be unified on one string, with 22 strings (314.6 kW) connected to a ‘DC combiner box,’ then 10 of those boxes connected to a 3,125 kVA inverter to boost AC power to 35 kV. Normally, solar installations have a lower MWac value (on the inverter), because it’s rare for the solar panels to output their full power, which makes it…