French renewable energy company Voltalia has commenced construction on a 59MW VSM 4 wind farm in the Serra Branca cluster, Brazil.
The new wind farm will be developed in Serra Branca cluster, which the company claimed to be the world’s biggest wind-and-solar cluster.
Spanning across about 40,000 hectares of land area, the cluster comprises a 2.4GW grid connection infrastructure, developed and built by Voltalia.
The cluster includes 800MW of wind power projects are in operation or under construction, 300MW of solar plants, and 700MW of wind projects that were sold to partners.
It also consists of 700MW of projects that can be sold or retained in its portfolio.
The VSM 4 wind farm will be equipped with 17 wind turbines
Voltalia CEO Sébastien Clerc said: “Just a few weeks after commissioning VSM 1 (163 megawatts), Voltalia’s biggest windfarm, and with VSM 2 (128 megawatts) and VSM 3 (150 megawatts) already under construction, I am pleased to announce the start of the construction of the VSM 4 (59 megawatts) project in our Serra Branca cluster.
“This new wind plant in Brazil, backed by long-term power sales agreements, shows our full commitment to supporting private companies in their energy transition.
“I take this opportunity to thank all workers on our construction sites worldwide and their continuous mobilization despite the challenges created by the sanitary crisis.”
The VSM 4 wind farm will be equipped with 17 wind turbines, each with 3.46MW of power that will be supplied by the Nordex Group.
The AW132/3465 model wind turbines will be assembled locally in Brazil.
Of the total power generated by the wind farm, 7MW of the energy will be supplied to local power distribution companies under 20-year contracts starting 2023.
The remaining 52MW will be supplied to a private off taker under a 10-year contract starting 2022.
Furthermore, the wind farm is anticipated to commence operations during the first semester of 2021.
In June last year, infrastructure investment fund STOA and Voltalia signed an agreement to acquire minority stake in two wind farms under construction in Brazil.
