Mainstream Renewable Power has completed the installation of all the 50 turbines at the 170MW Sarco wind farm, located in Freirina in northern Chile.
Image: Mainstream completes turbines installation at Chilean wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Falk Schaaf/FreeImages.com.
The Sarco wind farm, which is owned by Aela Energía, is being built by Mainstream Renewable Power.
The wind turbines are supplied by Senvion and each turbine has a capacity of 3.4MW. The German turbine-maker has supplied and installed the turbines on metal towers which are 93m tall. The total blade length of the turbines reach 149m.
The wind farm is located about 70km from to the southeast of the city of Vallenar in the Atacama Region in the northern part of the country. In June last year, the first turbine was installed at the project site.
Mainstream is also building a 73km transmission line, with a 220kV circuit. This line will transmit the electricity generated from the wind farm to the Maitencillo substation, from where the energy will be injected into the National Electrical System (SEN).
Mainstream technical director Diego Cornejo said: “The delivery and installation process, which began in the Port of Las Losas in Huasco, took a total of 8 months to complete.
“During the transportation process, 500 components were carried across 160 km of motorways and smaller roads before they arrived at the project site to be assembled. The assembly of these components can only be carried out in favourable weather conditions.”
Aela Energía, which is a joint venture between Actis with 60% equity and Mainstream Renewable Power with the remaining 40% equity, owns this project and has invested nearly $240m for the project. When completed, the wind farm will supply electricity to nearly 260,000 Chilean homes.
Last month, Senvion secured a conditional order from the company to supply turbines for two projects totaling 340MW in Chile. As part of the order, Senvion will supply a total of 81 of its 4.2MW turbines.
Out of the two projects, 37 Senvion 4.2M148 turbines will be supplied to the Tchamma project and the remaining 44 Senvion 4.2M118 turbines for the Cerro Tigre project.