Enel’s subsidiary Enel Green Power Brasil Participações (EGPB) has started commercial operations at its wind farm in Damascena in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Bahia and acquired stake in two wind farms in Calabria, Italy.
The Damascena wind farm has an installed capacity of 30MW and will be able to generate more than 140GWh annually.
The project will help in meeting the power needs for 70,000 households and can reduce 80,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
It is the second of the four wind farms at the 118MW Serra Azul wind power cluster to start operations.
Damascena, as well as Serra Azul are composed of Maniçoba (30MW), Esperança (30MW) and Dois Riachos (30MW).
With Damascena starting its operations, both Dios Riachos and Damascena are now delivering energy through Dio Riachos’ connection to the grid.
EGPB claims that when the other two wind farms in Maniçoba and Esperança start their operations, they will be able to supply 500GWh of power per year.
This is equivalent to supplying 240,000 households in Brazil and can help in avoiding at least 300,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
EGPB has invested around $220m for the construction of Serra Azul in line with its strategic plan.
The investment has been financed partly by loans from International Finance Corporation Itaú Unibanco and Brazilian Development Bank BNDES.
The power produced from these wind farms will be sold through energy supply contracts in Brazil’s regulated market.
In Italy, Enel Green Power has entered into an agreement with PLT Energia where Enel Green Power and PLT Energia jointly own these two wind farms.
According to the agreement, PLT Energia which owns 40% of share will now sell it to Enel Green Power.
The two wind farms have a total capacity of 64MW and they are located in the municipalities of Maida, Cortale (56MW) and San Floro (8MW) in the province of Catanzaro.
Enel Green Power and PLT Energia entered into this agreement in 2009 with a term to exercise put and call option on the sale of the stake held by PLT Energia.