MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Aeolic energy for gasoline station.

Under the name of “El Patagón”, the Brazilian oil company Petrobras inaugurated this weekend the first gasoline station in Patagonia that functions with a combination of conventional and Aeolic (wind) energy.

"Actually it's the second gasoline station of the company that functions with clean, renewable energy for the retailing of fuel. The first was in San Isidro, Buenos Aires province and is powered by solar energy", said Germán Aparicio head of "El Patagón" station in the main national route leading to Comodoro Rivadavia.

Windy Patagonia is Argentina's leading region in developing aeolic energy and between 7 and 10% of Comodoro Rivadavia's electricity is generated by the country's largest park of wind turbines.

A local cooperative responsible for the electricity distribution service has been the great promoter of aeolic energy in Comodoro Rivadavia. They have installed a total of 26 wind turbines, ten of them produce 22,9 million kilowatts hour annually and the other 16 wind mills that total 38 million kilowatts hour annually.

"It is estimated that the conventional energy we save with aeolic wind mills is equivalent to 15% of all energy consumed by our local net work of gasoline stations", revealed Mr. Aparicio.