Enel Green Power has been awarded the right to sign 20-year energy supply contracts in Brazil for a total of 553 megawatts of solar projects in a public tender—deals which the company says are valued at US$600 million.
Enel won the right to develop the 103-MW Horizonte MP, 158-MW Lapa and 292-MW Olinda projects. The Italian company said it was awarded the most amount of capacity in the tender than any any other bidder, and will make it the “top player across the entire solar industry of Brazil in terms of installed capacity and project portfolio.”
Enel said it will invest US$600 million for the projects, which will be completed and start operating by 2017. The three projects, which will be built in areas which enjoy high levels of solar radiation. The 20-year supply contracts involve specified volumes of energy generated by the plants to be sold to the Brazilian Chamber of Commercialisation of Electric Energy.
Horizonte MP will be built in Tabocas do Brejo Velho in the State of Bahia, which is located in Brazil’s north-east. Once up and running, the plant will generate annually about 223 GWh of renewable energy while avoiding the emission of around 67,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. The plant will be located next to EGP’s Ituverava solar project, which was awarded to the company in a November 2014 tender, meaning that EGP will be able to pool resources both during the construction of Horizonte MP and the operation of the two projects, which will share the same connection infrastructure.
The Lapa project will be built in Bom Jesus da Lapa in the State of Bahia. Once up and running, the plant will generate about 340 GWh each year while avoiding the emission of approximately 102,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Nova Olinda will be constructed in Ribeira do Piaui in the State of Piaui. The plant will generate about 604 GWh per year once fully operational, avoiding the emission of around 181,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere in the process.
“We are extremely pleased about this landmark win, thanks to which we became the number one company in the Brazilian solar industry,” said EGP CEO Francesco Venturini. “The 818MW of total capacity won in all photovoltaic auctions launched in Brazil so far, the 700MW won in wind power auctions and 102MW won in hydropower auctions in the country since 2010 all offer further validation of our Latin America growth strategy, the strength of which is based on our focus on technologies that are approaching or are at grid parity, developing and delivering innovative solutions and extracting synergies with other Enel Group companies in the region.”
