Alupar and Furnas will build ten wind farms in Ceará

Posted in: 12/20/2011

Alupar and Furnas will build ten wind farms in Ceará

The Consortium formed by Alupar Investimento S.A. (51%) and Furnas (49%) has sold at today‘s generation auction (ANEEL 07/2011), 204 MW of wind power for delivery from January 2016. The winning price was equivalent to R$ 110.00 MW/h, a discount of about 5% of the original. The companies will jointly build ten wind farms in the city of Aracati, Ceará, with investments of about R$ 800 million.

“Alupar has been working on developing wind farms in order to strengthen the renewable energy sources of the Group and the partnership with Furnas was instrumental in the success of this auction,” said Enio Nucci, director of New Business from Alupar.

“We are investing over R$ 1 billion in wind generation and we have a lot of interest in evaluating new opportunities. This victory established the partnership with Alupar and continues the policy of Furnas to diversify their ways of generating clean energy, “says Olga Simbalista, Director of Planning, Management and Business Interests of Furnas.

Alupar and Furnas selected projects for wind turbines manufactured by the German Fuhrländer. The devices have 2.5 MW of power, height of 141 meters – the highest in Brazil, where the winds are less susceptible to interference, and trellis towers that do not compromise the dynamics of the turbine, rather than the more common tubular structures in the market.

About Alupar

Alupar diversified its sources of energy generation by investing in small and medium hydropower and SHPPs. The Company currently owns 459 MW of installed capacity, 179.4 MW being deployed and another 280 MW are under development. The Company‘s power generation projects are divided into three hydroelectric plants, the HPP São José (51 MW), in Rio Grande do Sul, HPP Foz do Rio Claro (68.4 MW), in Goiás, and HPP Ferreira Gomes (252 MW), at Amapá, and five small hydroelectric plants, the SHPP Queluz (30 MW) and SHPP Lavrinhas (30 MW) located in São Paulo, and the SHPPs Guática I (4 MW), Guática II (8 MW ) and Morro Azul (16 MW), located in Colombia.

In the transmission sector, Alupar holds the concession of 19 transmission systems, with 715 km of lines under development in the North, in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, and other 4,750 km of lines operating located in the North and Northeast in the states of Pará, Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará, in the South, in the state of Santa Catarina, in the Southeast, in the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo and in the Midwest region in the state of Mato Grosso.

About Furnas

Furnas has a complex of enterprises accounted for nearly 10% of generation in Brazil. There are 15 hydroelectric plants, two thermal plants, approximately 20,000 km of transmission lines and 52 substations. Of all energy consumed in the country, more than 40% pass by Furnas System.

Currently, Furnas is building in partnership with business groups, wind farms Miassaba III and Rei dos Ventos I and III, which will begin operations in early 2012. In 2014 it will be the parks Famosa I, Rosada, Pau Brasil and São Paulo, whose buildings were secured through the sale of energy in the LER Auction 03/2011. Concentrated in the Northeast, the seven projects totaling 487.6 MW/h of installed capacity, power to 1.2 million people.

In the expansion of Furnas is also the construction of three hydroelectric power plants – Santo Antonio (RO), Simplício (RJ / MG) and Batalha (GO / MG) – 26 new transmission lines and 14 substations, being erected with own resources and together with the private sector. In addition, the company also participates with 49% of HPP Teles Pires (MT / BP), topped in late 2010 in partnership with Neoenergia and in phase of feasibility studies.