MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Wind farm energy for Chile’s giant state owned copper company

The aeolic park will have 125 turbines, 80 meters tall.

Chilean state-owned copper company CODELCO Norte presented this week plans for a 700 million US dollars wind farm to the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA).

CODELCO Norte, a division of mining giant CODELCO, wants to build the farm just outside the city limits of Calama in Chile’s northern Antofagasta Region (Region II).

The wind farm construction will create 358 jobs. After its completion, the complex will give jobs to eight people.

The farm will operate for 20 years, after which CODELCO Norte will evaluate the complex to decide whether to modernize it or shut it down.

The project includes construction and operation of 125 wind turbines. The turbines will be 80 meters tall and will each be able to generate between 1.5 and 2.3 megawatts of energy, totalling about 250 megawatts.

The wind farm will generate 766,500 megawatt hours on average every year, according to the CODELCO Norte proposal.

CODELCO Norte said in its presentation that the farm “will provide the energy required for [the company’s] production processes in northern Chile, diversifying the energy grid of the Greater North and incorporating clean energy that will not be limited by the restrictions of a fuel supply.”

The renewable energy project will allow the selling carbon credits to other countries, the company said.

Another division of CODELCO – the Gabriela Mistral Peroject, or “Minera Gaby” – is planning to build a wind park near the Salar de Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which the Antofagasta Regional Environmental Commission has already approved.

By Simon Boas - Santiago Times