Enel Green Power: projects in Latin America

12/13/2012

Enel Green Power’s projects in every renewable technology in Latin America, a market that is growing at a fast pace, where energy demand is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3.5% by 2020

Latin America is one of the most promising energy markets for Enel Green Power, which by 2016 is planning on investing 34% of 6.1 billion euros for the development of renewables in this region. A market that is growing at a fast pace, where the projections of the energy demand predict a 3,5% average annual increase by 2020.

In order to meet this growing demand, “renewables will play a very important role and with our operating renewable capacity of about 830 MW we can produce more than 3.4 billion kWh of zero-emission energy”, said Enel Green Power’s Head for Iberia e Latin America Maurizio Bezzeccheri, in a recent interview.

Bezzeccheri said that hydropower “is the source that accounts for 70% of total generation, but the contribution of biomass and geothermal are becoming increasingly significant, while wind and solar have huge growth margins”.

Wind is the sector in which EGP is most expanding in South America, due to the fact that construction requires less time. “In Chile we are building plants for 90 MW, while in Mexico we have other plants for 70 MW. We have just won a public tender for the development of a 102 MW wind farm in the state of Oaxaca, which has very strong winds”.

Hydropower is still a significant source in the whole region and EGP is “therefore developing several projects. In Costa Rica, for instance, we are completing the Chucas plant, which when fully operational will generate more than 200 million KWh per year, while in Mexico EGP already owns three hydro plants with an installed capacity of 53 MW.”

Geothermal has a huge potential, and the Italian tradition of Larderello is one of the company’s strong points. In Chile, the 50 MW of Cerro Pabellón could be increased by around 120 MW of geothermal, if the exploration of the new resources from the three new concessions recently acquired will produce the expected results.”

Finally, solar is highly appealing, especially when combined with other technologies in hybrid plants, and is favoured by the excellent radiation that is found particularly in Chile.

Link

Increasingly green Latin America Latina with EGP