MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile opens Wind Park to supply 57.000 homes

In a few years wind power will fuel 15% of Chile’s electricity demand

Chilean president Michelle Bachelet inaugurated last week the country's largest wind park. The Monte Redondo project demanded a 100 million US dollars investment and will have a production of 38 megawatts, which will power 57 thousand homes.

According to Bachelet, never before had Chile invested so much in clean energy as in her government period. And the numbers are impressive.

The Monte Redondo park is located in the north of the country, about 325 kilometres from Santiago. It's conformed by 19 V90 Vestas generators, each of 2 MW power, and was built and is owned entirely by French company GDF Suez.

The distribution of the produced energy will be managed by a local distributor called CGE, which will deliver 100 GW/hour to 57 thousand homes in the central energy grid for 14 years. According to Invertia Colombia, this will save Chile 54 thousand tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Leader in clean energy in France, GDF Suez has planned to invest 1.5 billion US dollars in different projects of sustainable energy in Chile from 2008 until 2012. Apart from this wind park, they're building hydroelectric and thermoelectric centrals.

In statements on the inauguration of the Monte Redondo park, president Bachelet said that never before had Chile seen so many investments in clean energy: from 2 megawatts, the country will have 200 at the end of her mandate.

According to Invertia Peru in two to five years, wind power will cover 15% of electric consume in Chile. One of the reasons for the diversification of energy production in the country was its heavy dependence on natural gas from Argentina. However Argentina privileged domestic consumption and did not honour contract conditions with Chile, forcing the country to look for other alternatives.