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CHILE
115 MW project signed
Pattern Energy Group LP has signed agreements for a 20-year renewable power sale and energy services for its 115 MW El Arrayan Wind project in Chile.
The project will be located approximately 400 km north of Santiago on the coast of Chile and will use Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines. Skanska will perform the balance-of-plant construction for the project, which has secured all land leases required for the wind turbines and transmission line.
The agreements were completed with "Minera Los Pelambres", a mining company controlled by Antofagasta PLC, whose mining division, Antofagasta Minerals SA, will also have an option to acquire a 30% stake in the project.
The wind farm is expected to begin construction in early 2012 and achieve commercial operation in the second half of 2013.
MEXICO
IDB approved financing for 396 MW Cerveceria Cuahutemoc´s project
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a loan of up to 1.1 billion Mexican pesos (approximately US$80 million) to help finance the construction of a 396 MW wind farm in Mexico installing 132 3MW wind turbines.
The project will be located in the La Ventosa region of Oaxaca, Mexico, and will supply energy to subsidiaries and affiliates of "Fomento Economico Mexicano" and "Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma" under self-supply agreements.
The project will also include the construction of a 52 km transmission line linking the wind farm with the electric grid. The IDB loan, which does not carry a sovereign guarantee, will be granted to Mareña Renovables Capital, controlled by Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund and other investors.
BRAZIL
Thinks BIG about wind energy
Under its newly launched energy expansion plan, the government intends to boost installed wind power generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020 from a mere 1.5 GW now.
The future tenders will be more profitable because the government is poised to introduce equipment-import and other tax breaks, as well as cheaper financing rates through Brazil's development bank BNDES, to make it all happen.
The government doesn't want to build more fuel-powered plants after 2015, as oil and biodiesel are more expensive to import and more polluting.
According to Elbia Melo, CEO of the Brazilian Windpower Association, building a wind power plant in Brazil has become 70 percent cheaper than it was seven years ago.
ARGENTINA
IDB approved financing for 546 MW to IMPSA
IMPSA gets IDB loan to finance Latin America wind energy investment plan. IMPSA will get a US$ 150 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to help finance its plans to expand wind energy generation in Latin America.
The IDB loan will be to IMPSA's Brazilian subsidiary Wind Power Energía S.A. to support the construction of an estimated four wind farms, three in Brazil and one in Uruguay, which will add 546MW of wind energy capacity in the region by 2014.
The IDB will also provide IMPSA with technical assistance to conduct an energy efficiency audit in its primary hydro and wind turbine manufacturing plant.
CHILE
Barrick Gold´s wind farm inaugurated
President Sebastián Piñera inaugurated the Wind Power Punta Colorada, in La Higuera, in the Coquimbo region. Built by the mining company Barrick Gold, the wind farm covers 242 hectares.
This $50 million project, located in the town of La Higuera in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, consists of 10 wind turbines that generate 20 megawatts of power, enough to supply the energy needs of 10,000 families. The wind farm has the capacity to expand to 18 turbines and generate 36 megawatts, which would raise the total investment in the project to $70 million. The power generated by the wind farm feeds into Chile's Central Interconnected Systems power grid.
EL SALVADORUnderstanding the Basics of Bankable Criteria for Wind Project Development
Project fact finding mission and recommendations for further project development steps of wind farms in El Salvador
How do you measure wind? And how do you analyze the data correctly? How to approach investors and technology providers and when is the best time in doing so? The answers to these questions are fundamental to every stakeholder in the wind energy sector. During a recently held project mission to El Salvador, a senior wind expert has been investigating and evaluating the project statuses of several wind farm projects in El Salvador. The due diligence mission was implemented by the Programm 4E (Energías Renovables y Eficiencia Energética / Erneuerbare Energie und Energieeffizienz) www.energias4e.com in Central Amerika of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and sponsored by the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conversation and Nuclear Safety. The GIZ in this program supports local companies in El Salvador to reach an efficient and bankable wind farm project development, considering lessons learnt and most recent scientific standards and recommendations to guarantee a high quality.
The goal of the project mission was to evaluate the status quo of the current project development and to provide information, recommendations and a due diligence report referring to the existing pre-feasibility study that was performed during the last years. The local wind farm developer was introduced to international norms and standards for wind measurement equipment and measurement procedures. "A profound understanding of the characteristics of wind power is necessary to understand the data", explained Andreas Jansen, senior wind energy expert from the German Consultancy Group German ProfEC GmbH, who did visit the planning sites and several measurement units, "without this, you cannot interpret your data properly."
Detailed information on the distribution of wind speeds is necessary to calculate a meaningful and bancable annual energy yield prognosis of a location. "When buying equipment for a wind measurement mast, one has to make sure that the equipment is certified according to international standards or recommendations," explained Mr. Jansen. "One can save a few hundred dollars buying cheaper measurement equipment in the beginning, but then one has to accept paying millions of dollars more in the long run on capital costs for your project." Mr. Jansen pointed out that small uncertainties in the wind measurement data create even higher uncertainties in the predictions of a wind farm's long-term energy yield production. This often gives birth to less attractive or even undesirable financing terms as higher guarantees to be provided, higher interest rates or a higher fraction of equity capital as underperformance of the wind farm is more likely.
Wind farm investors usually need to rely on banks to finance of a wind farm. Banks ask for qualified reports including bankable wind resource assessments and energy yield prognoses when deciding on these investments. These reports should show, among other things, that for example the anemometers used for wind speed measurements do meet the requirements of international standards, as established by the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) and the Network of European Measuring Institutes (MEASNET). Both provide substantial details on minimum technical requirements for anemometers, wind vanes and data loggers as well as the design and dimensions of the measurement masts used for wind resource measurement campaigns. If banks do not trust the data given to them because the equipment used for measurements does not meet their quality standards, they will either ask for higher interest rates on their investment loan or for more equity capital contribution and guarantees provided by the project owner, and in extreme cases they even might refuse to grant a loan.
To avoid higher capital costs, and especially if the wind regime is moderate only, banks also could request performing a new measurement campaign, but this time utilizing the bankable measurement equipment that complies with the IEC standard and MEASNET recommendations.
BRAZIL
Alstom´s first wind turbine plant
The plant, with a total area of 50,000 m2 and a built-up area of 10,000 m2, located in the industrial complex of Camaçari, State of Bahia, will have an output capacity of 300 MW per year and would generate, at first, 150 direct and 500 indirect jobs, representing an important contribution to the regional economy.
This new plant, which has been built according to the LEED certification which defines and certifies a sustainable building, will be in charge of the assembly of the ECO 86 turbines, adapted for the medium to high wind conditions and for the complex coastal geography of the region. The plant will also manufacture the ECO 100 turbines, which has already over 350 MW installed or under construction around the world and over 200,000 accumulated hours of operation since 2008.
Before the start of its manufacturing operations in Brazil, Alstom already won two critical contracts for wind farms. In July 2010, Alstom signed a contract worth € 100 million with the renewable power generation company Desenvix, a subsidiary of the Engevix group, for the construction of a 90 MW wind complex, also in the state of Bahia. The Brotas Complex will be composed of three wind farms to be equipped with 57 Alstom ECO 86 wind turbines of 1.67 MW each.
In 2011, the company signed a contract with Brasventos S.A, worth approximately €200 million, for the construction and maintenance of three wind farms, which will be installed in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The complex will have a total production capacity of 580,000 MWh a year, enough power to supply over 100,000 houses and save over 300,000 tons of CO2 every year. The scope of the order includes the supply, installation and commissioning and long-term servicing of the ECO 86 wind turbines. The farms will be supplied with Alstom's SCADA system, allowing for local and remote access to turbine data, optimizing operation and maintenance.
ARGENTINA
Sowitec for two new wind farms
The German company Sowitec will invest up to €246 millions for the construction of two wind farms at the Patagonian province of Neuquen. Company reported that both wind farms, with a combined capacity of 171 MW, should start commercial operation by the end of 2013. With its more than 100 employees in the key markets in Latin America, the company is one of the most important independent international developer teams in that region.
