IMPSA installs first turbine at Arauco wind park

LA PUERTA, ARGENTINA - IMPSA Wind, part of the major Argentine engineering and construction group Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona (IMPSA), recently installed the first 2.1-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the Arauco Phase I Wind Park in the locality of La Puerta, in La Rioja province.

In October 2008, IMPSA began construction for the first phase, which consists of a 2.1-MW IMPSA Unipower IWP77 wind turbine generator. This unit is undergoing its test phase and should be operational at the beginning of February. At the same time, IMPSA is working on the foundations of the second phase of the Arauco Wind Park, consisting of 11 other Unipower IWP77 generators. These units are scheduled to be operational by July, amounting to 25 MW of environmentally friendly energy production.

The installed capacity is expected to be doubled in 2011, reaching 50 MW with 24 operational units.

The Arauco Wind Complex is being developed by the government of the Province of La Rioja, with the technical and economical assistance of Energía Argentina S.A., a state-owned oil and energy company that will provide 97.4 million Argentinean Pesos (US$25.67 million) of the total investment amount of 240 million Pesos (US$63.22 million).

With a power generation matrix depending heavily on fossil fuel-fired power plants and hydropower stations, the installed capacity from wind power generation amounts to only 27 MW in Argentina. The government is taking steps to develop renewable energies in the country. At the moment, Enarsa is holding a tender for the development of renewable energies, and the province of San Juan is developing a 1.2-MW Solar Power Plant in that province.