ENEL GREEN POWER BRINGS ONLINE ITS FIRST POWER PLANT IN URUGUAY

The 50 MW Melowind wind farm is able to generate over 200 GWh of wind power a year
Enel Green Power invested approximately 98 million US dollars in construction of the new wind farm

Rome, September 7th, 2015 – Enel Green Power (EGP) has completed and connected to the grid Melowind wind farm, its first ever power plant in Uruguay. The 50 MW facility is located in the Cerro Largo area, about 320 kilometres from capital city Montevideo.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have begun generating kilowatt-hours in Uruguay”, said Enel Green Power CEO Francesco Venturini. “Uruguay fits perfectly with our growth strategy, as it is a country that is experiencing both economic and population growth, benefits from abundant energy resources and has a steady regulatory framework. The country aims to diversify its generation mix and expand the use of local energy resources between now and 2030, and our clean power will contribute to the reaching of this goal.”

Enel Green Power invested approximately 98 million US dollars in the construction of Melowind. The plant is able to generate more than 200 GWh of electricity a year – equal to the consumption needs of about 74,000 local households – while avoiding the annual emission of more than 62,000 tonnes of CO2. Melowind’s 47% load factor is equivalent to more than 4,100 hours of generation a year.

The electricity produced by Melowind will be sold to the state-owned power company UTE (Administración Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Eléctricas), which manages the transmission, distribution and sale of electricity in Uruguay, under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that was signed prior to construction of the plant.

Uruguay has an installed capacity of approximately 3.7 GW, with about 66% of output being generated from renewable resources.

Enel Green Power is the Enel Group company fully dedicated to the international development and management of renewable energy sources, with operations in Europe, the Americas and Africa. With a generation capacity equal to approximately 32 billion kWh in 2014 from water, sun, wind and the Earth’s heat – enough to meet the energy needs of more than 11 million households – Enel Green Power is a world leader in the sector thanks to its well-balanced generation mix that provides generation volumes well over the sector average. The company has an installed capacity of more than 9,900 MW from a mix of sources including wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and biomass. The company has about 740 plants operating in 16 countries.

In Latin America, Enel Green Power runs renewable energy plants in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay, with a total installed capacity of more than 2,000 MW as of today. In addition to the 50 MW just added in Uruguay, the company operates 442 MW of installed wind capacity in Mexico, 283 MW in Brazil, 340 MW in Chile, 24 MW in Costa Rica. The company also has 732 MW of hydropower and 178 MW of solar capacity installed across the region. Enel Green Power, which has a century’s worth of experience in geothermal energy, is building the 38 MW Cerro Pabellon facility in Chile, South America’s first-ever geothermal plant, with national oil company ENAP.

 

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