en.Wedoany.com Reported - Portuguese engineering and construction company Zagope has expanded its collaboration with GameChange Energy on the 149 MWdc Douro photovoltaic power plant project to a total of five projects in Portugal, with a combined installed capacity of 397 MWdc. Located in Tarouca, Viseu District, the power plant was built by Zagope for plant owners Sonnedix and Finerge, facing challenges such as hard granite geology, steep and irregular terrain, an accelerated construction schedule, and stringent reporting requirements. The successful delivery of the project not only completed a power plant but also established a long-term collaboration model between the two parties, subsequently applied to four other projects: Acail (28 MW), Riodades (61 MW), Sendim (120 MW), and Felgueiras (39 MW).
The Douro project concentrated multiple common construction risks: extremely hard rock made conventional pile driving difficult, increasing the need for drilling; slopes exceeding 15% complicated civil design, pile positioning, and component alignment; and manufacturing had to commence while the site layout was still evolving, leaving little room for delays or change coordination. These conditions put pressure on the project's economics and timeline. GameChange Energy's in-house geotechnical engineering team utilized available geotechnical reports and pullout test data to distinguish areas suitable for standard pile driving from shallow bedrock zones requiring pre-drilling and concrete-stabilized foundations, applying more intensive foundation treatment only where necessary. The high-strength steel design of its MaxSpan™ fixed-tilt system allowed for wider pile spacing, resulting in fewer than 215 piles per megawatt in the final configuration, reducing drilling, labor, and potential delay points. The team provided coordinates and elevations for over 30,000 piles and completed more than 20 slope analyses as civil design progressed.
The project schedule required design and manufacturing to proceed before the final layout was confirmed. As new geotechnical and site information emerged, GameChange Energy coordinated changes with Zagope, updating configurations and reallocating already-manufactured components to avoid production stoppages. Logistically, the production delivery system enabled the site team, manufacturer, and carriers to share visibility of 197 containers across 22 shipments, with materials arriving at the site at an average of five trucks per day. Installation was simplified through color-coded components, pre-assembled beams, and on-site training, with the first assembly completed by the installation team serving as the "golden row," providing a quality benchmark for subsequent work.
Guilherme Rodrigues, Head of Procurement, Energy, and Renewables at Zagope, stated that across multiple photovoltaic projects, MaxSpan™ demonstrated clear advantages in cost-effectiveness and execution, suitable for mountainous terrain with steep rock profiles, translating into optimized capital expenditure and measurable reductions in earthworks and mechanical installation time. He also noted that GameChange's engineering support was highly competent, responsive, and proficient across multiple disciplines. After a comparative analysis of alternatives, MaxSpan™ proved to be the most suitable choice for the specific site conditions.
The Douro project served as a catalyst for broader collaboration. Together with the Douro project, the five power plants are expected to generate approximately 630 GWh of clean electricity annually, enough to supply about 125,000 households, with an estimated annual emission reduction of around 94,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the impact of planting approximately 1.55 million trees.
