
Operational since October 2014, it was opened by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on January 15th 2015. Punta Palmeras is a 45-megawatt (MW) capacity wind farm equipped with fifteen AW116/3000 ACCIONA Windpower wind turbines (3 MW each) mounted on steel towers with a hub height of 92 meters. They were the most powerful turbines installed in the country at the time.
They produce around 124 GWh per year, injected into the Central Interconnected Systems of Chile (SIC) under an energy sale contract signed with the electric utility Colbún, which had awarded the project to ACCIONA. Production from the wind farm will avoid the emission of 119,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations, and also the import of around 215,000 barrels of oil to generate the same energy.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Location: Canela, Coquimbo. Chile
- Capacity: 45 MW.
- Wind turbine: ACCIONA Windpower AW116/3000
- Tower:steel, hub height 92m
- Start-up:2014
- Owner:ACCIONA
KEY FIGURES
- Wind farm with the most powerful turbines in Chile at the time of installation.
- Foundations and installation of 15 wind turbines.
- 11.3 km of access roads/tracks
- 32.4 km of underground medium voltage network
- 220 kV substation
- New 6.8-km line built by ACCIONA to evacuate the power to the substation
- Steel tower 92 meters high in 5 sections, assembled on site
- Wind farm built in a semi-desert environment
- Plan to relocate plants (mainly cactuses) and small animals, and replanting of the soil with local species
Environmental impact management
ACCIONA has applied the environmental protection methodology that characterizes all its projects in the construction of Punta Palmeras. Specifically in this case, thousands of cactus and bromeliad plants commonly found in semi-arid areas have been relocated; local plant varieties have been planted in greenhouses for the later replanting of land affected by the building work, and a program to relocate small mammals, amphibians and reptiles in the area has been carried out.