Enel, through its subsidiary Enel Green Power Brasil Participacoes Ltda. (EGPB), has begun commercial operation of the Damascena wind farm, which is located in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia and is now the second of four plants at the 118 MW Serra Azul wind power cluster to be put online.
Damascena has an installed capacity of 30 MW and will be able to generate more than 140 GWh per year – enough to meet the annual consumption needs of around 70,000 households while avoiding the emission of about 80,000 tons of CO2.
In addition to Damascena, the Serra Azul cluster is composed of Maniçoba (30 MW), Esperança (28 MW) and Dois Riachos (30 MW), the latter of which is already operating. Both Dois Riachos and Damascena are delivering energy through Dois Riachos’ connection to the grid. Enel says that when the entire cluster enters into service, it will be able to generate more than 500 GWh per year, which corresponds to the consumption of around 240,000 Brazilian households.
According to Enel, the company is investing approximately $220 million in the construction of Serra Azul, through financing from the International Finance Corp. (a member of the World Bank Group), Itaú Unibanco AS and Brazilian Development Bank BNDES. The generated energy will be sold mainly through energy supply contracts on the country’s regulated market.
With this move, EGPB now operates 264 MW of wind power capacity in Bahia, where the company is currently building the 90 MW Cristalandia and 180 MW Delfina wind projects. EGPB has also been awarded a further 172 MW of wind capacity in Bahia through public tenders.
