Acciona Energia is to develop its first windfarm in Chile at Punta Palmeras. The 45MW facility will consist of fifteen AW116/3000 Acciona wind turbines and will become operational in December 2014. The company has already signed a long-term power purchase agreement with the Chilean electric power company Colbún with whom it has a long-term supply contract. Colbún is currently the second largest power generation company serving the Chilean national grid, the Central Interconnected System – SIC. The PPA also includes associated green certificates which are extendable for a further five years.
Colbún awarded the PPA to Acciona following a tender process initiated in May 2012 for the purchase of energy and associated benefits from Non-Conventional Renewables Energy (ERNC) efficient projects. Over 100 potential projects were examined during the tender process with 69 such projects passing the initial selection process. Two contracts were finally awarded, one of them being the Acciona wind project.
The Punta Palmeras wind farm will be located in the municipality of Canela, in the province of Choapa, Coquimbo. It will be built, owned and operated by Acciona and construction is expected to start in the last trimester of 2013 with operation scheduled for December 31st 2014. The fifteen AW 116/3000 wind turbines are designed and manufactured by Acciona itself and are designed to optimize generation on medium wind sites (class IEC IIa). The windfarm in its entirety is expected to generate enough energy for around 60,000 Chilean homes, displacing 119,000 tons of CO2 per year from conventional coal-fired power stations. It will be connected to the SIC at the 220kV Las Palmas substation via a new 6.5km power line.
Acciona’s CEO, Rafael Mateo, said that the contract “shows the capacity of non-conventional renewables to be competitive in a market like Chile, where their contribution is essential to make progress towards the objective of a sustainable energy mix for the country.”
Alongside the windfarm, Acciona has a portfolio of renewable energy projects across Chile which includes other developing wind power projects, concentrated solar power (CSP) and solar PV projects. The company is also the current leader in wind power development in Mexico with 556.5MW in operation and other major projects in development. It is also constructing a 49.5MW windfarm in Costa Rica and has a wind turbine components plant in Brazil where the company has also won contracts to supply 330MW worth of wind turbines.
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