Enel secures $300 million for Latin American push

LATIN AMERICA: Enel Green Power has agreed $300 million in loans from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) to partly fund its expansion plans in Chile and Mexico.

by Patrick Smith 8 January 2014

Enel has already commissioned the Talinay wind farm in Chile

The two $150 million loans from the Spanish bank have been agreed by Enel's subsidiaries in the Latin American countries.

In Chile, the company said it is exploring several concessions with a potential capacity exceeding 100MW.

Enel did not specify its plans in Mexico, but has previously said it intends to add around 200MW of wind capacity in the country before 2016.

As Enel's home market of Italy continued to flounder, the company announced a long term plans in 2012 to target wind opportunities in Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

The firm said it would invest roughly €6.1 billion to add 4.5GW of new capacity, 38% of which should come from emerging markets between 2012 and 2016.

In wind energy — which will account for 57% of all investments in the period — this means projects in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Morocco.

On top of this, the company has identified the potential for the development of 1GW of wind projects in Peru, with Columbia also on Enel's radar.

Enel recently connected Talinay and Valle de los Ventos wind farms, both with an installed capacity of 90MW, tot the grid in Chile and it is constructing Taltal, its biggest wind farm in the country at 99MW.

In Mexico, Enel currently has an installed wind capacity of 144MW.