Enel Group’s Brazilian renewable energy subsidiary, Enel Green Power Brasil Participações (EGPB), has started commercial operations at its 716MW Lagoa dos Ventos I and II wind farm, the largest in operation in South America.
Located in the municipalities of Lagoa do Barro do Piauí, Queimada Nova and Dom Inocêncio, in Brazil’s northeastern state of Piauí, it has been described by Enel Green Power’s chief executive Salvatore Bernabei as “a record-breaking wind project and... an important milestone for Enel Green Power worldwide”.
Out of the wind farm’s total installed capacity, 510MW was awarded to Enel Green Power in Brazil’s A-6 public tender in December 2017 and is supported by 20-year power supply contracts with a pool of distribution companies operating in the country’s regulated market.
Output from the remaining 206MW will be delivered to the free market for sale to retail customers.
The project uses 230 Nordex AW125 wind turbines, with power ratings of 3MW and 3.15MW. Nordex is also contracted to serve the turbines for two years.
The 396MW Lagoa dos Ventos III project is currently under construction, taking the whole complex to 1.1GW. It is due online in 2022.
Due to the scale of the project, EGPB designed an innovative plant layout that optimises the project’s energy output based on a high-resolution wind resource assessment.
The developer deployed a variety of innovative tools during construction, including proximity sensors on machinery to boost site safety, drones for topographic survey, smart tracking of wind turbine components, advanced software solutions to monitor site activities, and a specific tool to optimise the turbine installation schedule.
Strict Covid-19 protocols were implemented during construction of Lagoa dos Ventos I and II, and are being followed for the third phase of the project.
The Enel Group, through its subsidiaries EGPB and Enel Brasil, has a total renewable installed capacity of more than 3.7GW in Brazil, 1.5GW of which is wind.
Globally, Enel Green Power has an operating portfolio of 49GW of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower plants across the five continents.
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