New Chilean wind farm starts spinning

The Atacama wind farm is located in the Chilean region of the same name, in the commune of Freirina, in the province of Huasco. The project consists of 29 Nordex N163 wind turbines of 5.7 MW, which have already begun to feed their first megawatt hours of 100% renewable energy into the grid. The construction and commissioning of this facility was completed in less than twelve months. The Atacama wind farm will produce more than 450 GWh of clean energy per year, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 150,000 homes, and will prevent more than 320,000 tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere per year. Prior to the start of construction, both companies signed a 14-year power purchase agreement (PPA).

João Paulo Costeira, Repsol's General Manager of Low Carbon Generation, said: "This milestone will allow us to meet our growth and diversification goals in Chile, a country that offers us great potential for asset development as a further step towards achieving our goal of 6 GW in operation by 2025."

Gregorio Álvarez, founder and president of Grupo Ibereólica Renovables, said: "With the commissioning of the Atacama wind farm we reinforce our joint commitment with Repsol to the decarbonization of Chile's energy system, with 358 MW of wind power built and already in operation in the country.