The 165.3MW project consists of 29 Nordex N163 wind turbines of 5.7MW each and will supply enough power annually to meet the needs of 150,000 homes.

The Atacama wind farm follows the development of the 192.5MW Cabo Leones III wind farm. Both wind farms form part of the Chilean project portfolio of Repsol Ibereólica Renovables, the joint venture between Repsol and the Ibereólica Renovables Group.

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Both wind farms are located in Atacama in the Chilean region of the same name in the province of Huasco.

Together, the partners have more than 1,200MW of assets in operation, construction or development, with the possibility of exceeding 2,600MW in 2030.

Before the construction, both companies signed a 14-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to maximise returns on the generation asset.

João Paulo Costeira, Repsol’s general manager of Low Carbon Generation, said: “This milestone will allow us to meet our growth and diversification goals in Chile, a country that offers us great potential for asset development as a further step towards achieving our goal of 6GW in operation by 2025.”

Repsol has a current portfolio of installed renewable generation projects amounting to more than 1,800MW, including 1,600MW of installed renewable capacity in Spain, 62.5MW in the United States and 3MW from the WindFloat Atlantic floating wind farm in Portugal.

With the addition of this Atacama wind farm, Spanish renewables group Ibereólica Renovables has reached 1GW of installed capacity across Spain and Chile.

According to the World Economic Forum, despite its historical ties to fossil fuels and copper mining, Chile in recent years has accelerated its energy transition through political support, private-public partnerships and innovative green technologies.

Chile plans to convert 70% of its total energy consumption to renewables by 2030 and has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.

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Renewables company Statkraft Peru has acquired the shares of two companies; GR Vale SAC, owner of the LUPI solar project located in Carumas, Moquegua; and GR Bayovar SAC, owner of the EMMA wind project in Sechura, Piura.

The 150MW LUPI solar project is located at more than 4,500 meters above sea level and will make the best of the region’s high radiation levels to maximise the production of photovoltaic energy.

The EMMA wind energy project will be built in two phases, the first of which will include 72MW of wind capacity. The second phase will develop approximately 408MW of hybrid generation (wind and solar power) making it the first hybrid plant in operation in Peru, according to Statkraft.

Both projects have good soil conditions for the construction phase, close interconnection points, and easy land and sea access.

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“With this acquisition, Statkraft Peru could double its electrical potential once these projects come into operation, through 100% renewable, non-conventional energy, in regions of the country with the best conditions for wind and solar projects. We have the goal of growing with non-conventional renewable energy plants and we hope to have a portfolio of at least five or six projects soon”, highlights Juan Antonio Rozas, country manager of Statkraft Peru.

To date, the studies and permits are being completed, which will allow the construction phase to begin during the 2024-2025 period.

Statkraft Peru’s current installed capacity (450MW) is entirely hydroelectric. These acquisitions will help to diversify the company’s portfolio and will complement the installed generation capacity. Wind energy will complement the lower hydroelectric production in the dry season and solar technology will contribute to production in the hours of greatest radiation with the leveling of production peaks during the year.

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The €2m project will be delivered via Iberdrola’s Brazilian subsidiary Neoenergia and will be located on water at the Xaréu dam on Fernando de Noronha island.

Recognised by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage Site, the island is being used by Iberdrola as a testbed for several sustainable energy solutions, including electric mobility and clean energy generation.

With 630 kW installed capacity, the floating plant comprising 940 panels will generate around 1240 MWh of energy per year, which Iberdrola says will be enough to cover more than half of the energy needs of the island’s water and sewage distribution network.

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This plant joins other sustainable projects developed by the company to provide renewable solutions and promote the preservation of the island’s biodiversity,

Fernando de Noronha is the only inhabited island of a volcanic archipelago located in the northeast of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean.

Iberdrola’s other energy initiatives on the island include the recently inaugurated Vacaria solar plant, the first of two solar farms, each with a capacity of 50 kW, designed to exclusively supply electric vehicles.

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The island already has ten electric vehicles for tourists and district administration uses and 12 new charging points are planned to be installed at strategic locations.

The company also intends to promote the use of electric bicycles by tourists and residents at Fernando de Noronha, which has an area of approximately 17 square kilometres, and it has begun installing 24 charging points at four separate stations.

The energy consumed by the equipment – which will be donated to the Pernambuco State Government – will be generated by solar panels installed on the roofs of the structures, which will allow them to be used free of charge.

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The plant, which is powered by its own 3.4MW wind turbine, is utilising water and carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere to produce green hydrogen and in turn the synthetic or efuels that open a way for decarbonising transport without the need to replace existing internal combustion engines.

In the pilot phase, the production of efuels, including carbon neutral methanol, carbon neutral gasoline and carbon neutral liquefied gas, of around 130,000 litres per year is planned.

Initially the fuel is to be used in lighthouse projects such as the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and at Porsche Experience Centres.

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Following the pilot phase, the first scaling will take the project up to a projected 55Ml per year by the middle of the decade.

With further scaling the capacity is expected to increase by a further factor ten to 550Ml per year around 2027.

“Porsche is committed to a double-e path: e-mobility and efuels as a complementary technology. Using efuels reduces CO2 emissions,” says Barbara Frenkel, Member of the Executive Board for Procurement at Porsche AG.

“Looking at the entire traffic sector, the industrial production of synthetic fuels should keep being pushed forward worldwide.”

With more than 1.3 billion vehicles with combustion engines on the roads worldwide, many likely to be there for many years to come, the potential for efuels as a carbon neutral fuel replacement is significant.

The Haru Oni project, so far the largest of its kind in Latin America and one of the first worldwide, is an initiative of the global efuels company Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF) in partnership with Porsche as well as Siemens Energy, Enel Green Power, the Chilean state energy company Enap, the gas distribution company Empresas Gasco and ExxonMobil.

The project with a $74 million investment, has a 1.2MW electrolyser.

The location in the Magallanes region in southern Chile offers excellent wind potential, while the nearby port of Cabo Negro and its proximity to the Strait of Magellan offers the facilities for the export of the efuels worldwide.

Commercial operations are expected to start in March 2023.

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Trinidad and Tobago, the first Caribbean nation to pursue a green hydrogen agenda, has a long standing history as a global player in the production of ammonia, with green hydrogen seen as the next step and a major decarbonisation option for the power and industrial sectors.

The roadmap, which was developed by the country’s National Energy Corporation with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), states that many of the building blocks for a regional production, storage and trading hub are already in place to give the nation a head start in the market.

The roadmap identifies offshore wind technologies as the best renewable energy source available in Trinidad and Tobago in the production of green hydrogen.

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An initial estimate of the potential areas available for offshore development indicates that on average the nation could access up to 57GW of offshore wind across fixed and floating technologies. Based on desktop modelling, this equates to 25GW in average energy output.

If all this 25GW of potential energy output was directed to electrolysers, then approximately 4Mt/yr of green hydrogen could be generated.

This is more than double the current local demand for the grey hydrogen (1.7Mt/yr) required by the petrochemical industry, providing the nation with the opportunity to both decarbonise that industry as well as to contribute significantly to further GDP growth through exports.

Currently, Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector accounts for 40% of GDP and 80% of export earnings, through the production and exports of oil and gas as well as ammonia and methanol.

Investment in green hydrogen value chain

The roadmap continues that to convert this vision into reality, the country needs to invest in the upstream development of the hydrogen value chain, from wind turbines to electrolysis plants, as well as ensure that the downstream infrastructure for green ammonia and methanol is expanded.

Thus the immediate next steps consist of a two-track approach of securing funding for the programme and launching local demonstration projects.

Funding sources such as climate finance, carbon markets, private sector and national finance will be explored, while demonstration projects will be planned to test the end use of green hydrogen in the petrochemical industry through the production of green ammonia and methanol, in the transportation sector through public transport and in cement manufacturing.

Commenting on the roadmap, Stuart R. Young, Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, said the government is committed to pursuing Trinidad and Tobago’s decarbonisation efforts beyond the 2030 Paris Agreement targets.

“The government recognises the importance of creating the right enablers through regulations, policies and incentives, that will support the development of this green hydrogen economy.”

To take the programme forward the Ministry is working on a draft Hydrogen Policy that will support the findings of the roadmap study.

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To this end, the company will invest BRL$6 billion (US$1.2 billion) in Brazil by 2025 with a goal to have 50% of its energy generated by solar.

According to BNamericas, the company has 85% of its generation coming from hydroelectricity but wants to reduce this percentage to half, with the other 50% coming from solar. The goal is to have 1GW of installed solar capacity by 2025 (today, this number is close to 0.1GW). For reference, Brazil had 9GW of installed photovoltaic capacity in 2021.

“We don’t want to be in all business verticals. We want to be in a few and with weight in them,” said João Marques da Cruz, chief executive officer of EDP. The two verticals listed by the executive are the dedicated distributed generation model and shared remote plants.

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In the distributed generation model, a small plant is created on demand to serve a single client. The company has clients in this category, within the telecommunications and financial sector segments. Shared remote plants are dedicated to small businesses (pharmacies, restaurants, stores), which do not have enough demand to require an entire plant. For each megawatt of energy produced, about 100 customers of this size can be served, according to the company. On average, each plant targeted by EDP has 3MW to 4MW, which gives a total of 300 customers per plant.

The company said it is looking for land in the northeast and southeast to invest in distributed generation.

To focus its investments on photovoltaic energy, EDP plans some divestments. Hydroelectric generation is one of them, mainly because of the high exposure to rainfall in the country. In the third quarter, the company reported the sale of the 198MW Mascarenhas plant in Espírito Santo, which should be concluded by the end of the year, according to the CEO.

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For now, the other two hydroelectric plants (Santo Antônio do Jari and Cachoeira Caldeirão) are not for sale because they have not reached a value that would please both parties, the executive said in a conference call with analysts.

EDP also plans to stop investing in thermoelectric generation. The company has a coal-fired plant in Porto Peçanha, in which it should cease to be the main shareholder as of 2025.

Regarding investments in transmission and distribution, this is an area the company only entered two years ago. The company said it will go to the auctions being held soon. Last year, it won the lot for construction in Acre and the privatization of CELG-T in Goiás. In addition to the December auction, the company is analyzing a possible presence in the June 2023 auction.

In the BRL$6 billion budget planned for the next five years, EDP Brazil will also invest in distribution.

With all the investments made, the company projects to increase its EBITDA by 10% to 15% annually until 2025. This is in real terms, in addition to inflation. In the past two years, EDP’s EBITDA has grown 88%.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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This is according to new analysis from Wood Mackenzie.

Offshore wind activity will correspond to a 15.4% compound annual growth rate starting from 2032, when the first projects are expected to come online in the region. Leading the way will be Brazil and Colombia.

“We have seen significant regulatory movement in support of offshore wind developments, with Brazil and Colombia providing official roadmaps and guidelines for future activity,” said Kárys Prado, research analyst, Power & Renewables with Wood Mackenzie.

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“Both countries have an increasing number of planned projects, and this year’s announced pipeline growth in Latin America already represents a 34% share of global new project announcements, as of Q3 2022.”

The value for offshore wind capacity will be to support green hydrogen projects that look to play an important role in domestic energy use and exports.

Wood Mackenzie forecasts that Brazil will capture close to 6% of the world’s total green hydrogen supply through 2050, with the market gaining scale after 2030. However, only 20% of the green hydrogen installations in the country will be grid-connected.

“The majority of these projects will be off-grid and part of it will be supported by offshore wind, alongside other renewables,” said Prado.

“This will play a key role in the country’s future economy and long-term position as a global energy exporter. However, there is still much work to be done on the regulatory front and many challenges remain to make this a reality.”

Current challenges facing developers include limited energy demand, transmission infrastructure constraints, competition from other sources, project bankability and supply chain issues.

“Despite all these challenges, there is an opportunity for the industry to take off. If regulation and infrastructure investments accelerate, combined with the fledgling green hydrogen industry, future offshore wind capacity could exceed expectations in the region,” concluded Prado.

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For the new 350MW Azulão power plant located near Manaus, GE will provide a 7HA.02 gas turbine powering an H65 generator.

The aim of the new turbine is to provide additional flexibility to the grid to better manage the growing utilisation of non-dispatchable energy sources, as well as increase efficiency and decrease emissions.

Furthermore, according to GE, the increased power available on the open electricity market could help reduce the average cost of electricity.

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“The use of renewable energy sources is continuously being expanded in many countries around the world, but the grid infrastructure still requires highly efficient gas turbine technology to stabilise and support these variable technologies,” said Eric Gray, president and CEO of GE Gas Power.

“Rapid renewable energy growth presents system operators and energy providers with the increasingly difficult task of continuously ensuring stability of the grid and a reliable power supply. GE’s H-Class gas turbine technology has earned a reputation for flexibility, output, environmental performance and high efficiency that has led to its rapid growth and maturation as a fleet worldwide, and we’re honoured to add a new customer to our HA fleet.”

The construction of the new reserve power plant will start in late 2022 and is expected to be operational by 2026.

The Brazilian Energy Planning Agency’s Energy Expansion Plan (PDE) for 2019-2029 indicates that renewable sources will remain a high priority for the country, targeting 48% of Brazil´s energy matrix by 2029. This plant aligns with that strategy and will aid the growth of intermittent renewable resources such as hydro (without reservoirs), solar and wind.

In Brazil, Eneva owns and operates a 1.9GW generation complex integrated to proprietary gas production. The company is now operating in the Brazilian renewables industry with the recent acquisition of Focus Energia.

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Belo Monte, on the Xingu River in Para State, began dispatching electricity to Brazil’s grid in April 2016. The Belo Monte power plant is the largest hydropower plant in Brazil and the fourth largest in the world, according to a release. The amount of energy generated is sufficient to meet the electricity needs of 60 million people.

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The contract covers all maintenance work for a total of 24 power generation units. Eighteen of them are at Belo Monte and another six are at Pimental, located just a few kilometers from the main Belo Monte plant.

Ensuring the proper maintenance of the Belo Monte project will help make the best use of its assets and resources to generate clean, affordable and reliable energy for millions of Brazilians, GE Renewable Energy said. To execute the contract, GE Renewable Energy will assemble a team of professionals with expertise in mechanical, electrical, planning, health and safety, administration, and project management.

“GE’s experience in the maintenance of large-scale assets, our digital technologies and services, and the fact that we are also a manufacturer put us in a unique position to add value on this important project,” said Pascal Radue, chief executive officer of GE Renewable Energy’s hydro division.

GE Renewable Energy was previously selected to supply equipment and solutions for the construction and installation of the plants.

GE Renewable Energy, an integral part of the GE Vernova portfolio of energy businesses, provides end-to-end solutions for customers demanding reliable and affordable green power. GE Vernova — comprised of the Power, Renewable Energy, Digital and Energy Financial Services businesses — focuses on supporting customers’ transformations during the global energy transition.

Originally published on hydroreview.com

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The agreement will see MYTILINEOS supply the utility with up to 1.1TWh per year for the next 10 years, enough to power 532,000 homes and avoid 570,000 tonnes of emissions.

This marks MYTILINEOS’ first power purchase agreement in Chile, and according to Nikos Papapetrou, general manager of MYTILINEOS’ Renewables & Storage Development Business Unit, is “a solid point to position our presence in the country and from which to continue executing a disciplined growth strategy in Chile and our other choice jurisdictions in Latin America.”

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The power for the PPA will be generated from four solar projects totalling 588MW, purchased by MYTILINEOS in the brownfield stage between 2020 and 2021.

One project is under construction and the other three are in their final stages of development and are expected to start construction during 2022.

The projects are located in the Arica-Parinacota (109MWp), Antofagasta (228MWp), Atacama (165MWp), and Coquimbo (86MWp) regions of Chile.

“With this agreement, Enel boosts its renewable energy portfolio to offer our clients competitive energy supply, in line with the company’s efforts to support Chile’s energy transition,” said Alfredo Hott, trading and commercialisation manager for Enel Generación Chile.

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