Construction of a 292 MW solar farm in Brazil has started, Enel Green Power Brasil Participações (EGPB) has announced.

Construction of a 292 MW solar farm in Brazil has started, Enel Green Power Brasil Participações (EGPB) has announced.

The 690 hectare Nova Olina solar power plant will be the largest solar plant in Latin America when it is completed in late 2017. It will be located in Ribeira do Piauí in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Piauí, which has high levels of solar irradiation, Enel said.

Enel will invest $300 million in the construction of Nova Olinda. It will sell the output from the plant to the Brazilian Chamber of Commercialisation of Electric Energy (Câmara de Comercialização da Energia Elétrica, CCEE) under a 20-year power purchase agreement.

Nova Olinda is owned by four special purpose vehicles (SPV) held by EGPB and will be able to generate more than 600 GWh per year, enough to meet the annual energy consumption needs of around 300 000 Brazilian households.

“The Brazilian government has developed an attractive and well-structured auction process,” said Carlo Zorzoli, Enel’s Country Manager for Brazil. “We look forward to continuing to invest in order to grow strongly in the country’s energy sector.”

EGPB currently has a total installed capacity of 546 MW, of which 401 MW comes from wind, 12 MW from solar and 133 MW from hydro. The company has a further 442 MW of wind, 102 MW of hydro and 807 MW of solar projects in development.