Girasol Solar Power Plant

Audit Analysis

The Girasol Solar Power Plant is a 5-year Gold Standard PV avoidance project in the Dominican Republic with VVB-confirmed additionality and no reversal events, but it is undermined by a contradiction in baseline method (project-specific vs. jurisdictional), an unaddressed leakage justification, a grid emission factor from 2020 whose validity is under corrective action, and an exact match between claimed and verified ERR that raises transparency concerns. The project appears to be a CDM-era installation (PDD dated 2017) re-verified under Gold Standard, adding documentation complexity.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Claimed and verified ERR are identical (204,060 tCO₂e) with no ex-ante lifetime figure available, making independent verification of the magnitude unverifiable
• ⚠Grid emission factor of 0.6216 tCO₂/MWh is from 2020 and its continued validity is subject to a corrective action (FAR 01), creating baseline uncertainty
• ⚠Leakage justification is contradictory: the verification report (July 2025) records it as 'not addressed' while the monitoring report (April 2025) states it was 'deemed negligible', with no quantified deduction
• ⚠Baseline method is contradictory: the verification report classifies it as project-specific while the monitoring report calls it jurisdictional, and no reassessment date is recorded
• ⚠Multiple corrective actions remain open, including GEF validity under the selected methodology, stakeholder consultation documentation gaps, and calibration certificate coverage

Credit Vintages