Rio Energy to build eight projects in Brazil

BRAZIL: Developer Rio Energy is to build eight wind sites in northeast Brazil after securing financing from the country's state-owned development bank BNDES.

by Tom Azzopardi 28 March 2017

The Rio Energy projects will use Wobben-branded Enercon E92 turbines

The eight projects, located in the state of Bahia, will consist of 95 2.35MW Wobben (Enercon) E-92 turbines, totalling 223MW of installed capacity, and is set to begin operating in November 2018.

Under the financing agreements, BNDES will provide BRL$848 million ($272 million) for the projects, which will also fund road accesses, a substation and a transmission line.

The new wind farms will almost double Rio Energy's portfolio of operating turbines to just under 500MW, said CEO Marcos Meireles.

The company already operates the 54MW Eolicas Caetite project in Bahia, and the 207MW Eplicas Itarema development in Ceara, northern Brazil.

Created in 2012 by US private equity firm Denham Capital, Rio Energy has a pipeline of 2GW of wind projects at different stages of development.