The solar park is located in the municipality of Tabocas do Brejo Velho, in the north-eastern state of Bahia.
For this project, Enel claims to have invested $110m and says that it is part of the company’s commitment to its current strategic plan. The investment for the solar project partly includes the company's own finances along with a long-term finance provided by Banco do Nordeste (BNB).
Enel has entered into a 20 year power purchase agreement with the Brazilian Chamber of Commercialisation of Electric Energy (Câmara de Comercialização da Energia Elétrica, CCEE) to supply the clean energy generated from the solar park.
The Horizonte solar facility is comprised of almost 330,000 solar panels and will be able to produce over 220GWh per year once fully operational.
In the state of Bahia, Enel already operates 706MW in wind capacity and 515MW in solar capacity, including 254MW Ituverava and the 158MW Lapa solar parks.
Enel’s Enel Green Power Global Renewable Energies Division Head Antonio Cammisecra said: “The entry into service of Horizonte marks a new milestone for the Group’s presence in the Brazilian solar market, where in just over eight months we added four projects for a total capacity of 807 MW, which include South America’s largest PV facility currently in operation, Nova Olinda."
In December last year, Enel’s subsidiary EGPB had won a tender to construct three wind projects in Brazil totalling 618MW.
The tender consisted of three wind projects including the 510MW Lagoa do Barro wind farm, the 78MW Morro do Chapéu II wind farm and the 30MW extension of Enel’s already operational 180MW Delfina wind farm.
These three wind farms are expected to be operational by 2023 and could cumulatively generate about 3TWh of renewable electricity. They are being supported by 20 year power supply contracts.
