The grants come from the government-funded National Agency for Science and Technology. They cover five projects by public-private partnerships in different parts of the country looking into the design, manufacture and maintenance of wind turbines.
The companies involved in the projects include turbine manufacturer Imps, nuclear and aerospace group Invap, industrial equipment makers Metalúrgica Calviño and Centro de Maquinado Metalúrgico, shipyard Río Santiago, oil and gas industry supplier SICA Metalúrgica Argentina and Spanish engineering firm Emesa.
In total, the project budgets are expected to reach more than ARS 157 million through contributions made by companies and institutions involved.
The aim of the projects is the mass production of turbines, including major parts such as blades. There is also an initiative to develop and build a tower factory.
Other participants include the National University of La Plata, the Ministry of Production, Science and Technology of the province of Buenos Aires, the municipality of Cutral Có,the infrastructure and energy ministry of the province of Mendoza, and the National Institute of Industrial Technology. It is expected that projects will be completed between next 18 and 48 months.
Since 2010, when the government auctioned and signed contracts for 754MW in wind projects at a fixed price of $127/MWh — at the time the highest in the region — little has been developed.
According to “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç's Windicator, Argentina installed 60MW in 2013, taking it's overall capacity to 161MW, while the pipeline is around 3.56GW.
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