IMPSA installs first turbine at Arauco wind park

Arauco Wind Park Argentina expands renewable energy with IMPSA Unipower IWP77 turbines in La Rioja, adding 25 MW by July and 50 MW by 2011, backed by Enarsa investment, diversifying Argentina's fossil-heavy power mix.

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, as projects like a 200 MW wind farm in Colombia move forward in the region.

The installed capacity is expected to be doubled in 2011, reaching 50 MW with 24 operational units, comparable to Spanish wind farm projects recently announced.

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 supporting nuclear development as well, 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, and while Chile's largest wind farm has recently become operational, 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, including assessments of geothermal project potential that are underway. 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.

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