Enel Green Power has announced that it has completed and commissioned its first wind energy in Uruguay.
A 50 MW wind energy project was operationalised in the Cerro Largo area, about 320 kilometres from the capital city of Montevideo. Enel Green Power invested $98 million into the the wind farm, which is expected to generate more than 200 GWh of electricity each year, with an impressive load factor of 47%. The project will generate enough power in a year to fulfil the equivalent of the needs of about 74,000 households, and also offset greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 62,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
The power generated from the wind energy project will be sold to state-owned power company UTE (Administración Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Eléctricas) through a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Several other companies are also working on wind energy projects in Uruguay, all of which will make a significant contribution to the country’s target to source 90% of its total electricity needs from renewable energy sources by the end of this year. The country seems well on track to achieve this target, considering that last year the country’s national energy director announced that 84% of the electricity consumed was sourced from renewable energy sources.
Uruguay has attracted significant investments in the wind energy sector in recent months. Earlier this year the Inter-American Development Bank and China Co-financing Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean announced debt financing worth $216 million for two wind energy projects of 70 MW capacity each.
Enel Green Power has a substantial footprint in South America, operating over 2 GW of renewable energy capacity across Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay.
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