Global Growth of Wind Power

The Global Wind Energy Council report a12.5 percent increase in wind power capacity in 2013 and forecasts a positive 2014. Enel Green Power is part of this trend, with plants under construction in three continents.

After a good 2013 for wind power, and forecasts are favourable also for 2014, according to the Global Wind Energy Council . Last year, global installed wind power capacity grew by 35,467 megawatts, an increase of 12.5 percent.

Enel Green Power ’s global wind power capacity rose from 4.32 gigawatts in 2012 to the current 5.1GW. Over the course of 2013 facilities were opened and construction of new wind farms began in Latin and North America and South Africa, while a new production record was achieved in the USA at the start of this year. The large Rocky Ridge and Chisholm View wind farms in Oklahoma produced electricity with a capacity factor of between 60-65 percent and a total daily production exceeding five gigawatt-hours, meeting the needs of some 185,000 American households.

Wind power was also crucial to the production record of 5 January, when the company’s plants around the world reached a peak daily production of 114.3GWh. Wind power was key to the record thanks to an annual production of 67GWh, of which 22GWh came from US plants, 19GWh from Spain and 9.4GWh from Italy, leading to production levels that were 62,6 percent higher than forecasted.

A number projects under construction are of particular importance to EGP, who recently put the Primavera facility at Cristal wind farm in Brazil into service. The company is currently building the 56MW Curva – of which 28MW are already completed – the 56MW Modelo, the 120MW Serra Azul and the 80MW Fontes dos Ventos, whose start-up will begin in August 2014.

Elsewhere in Latin America, EGP is building Taltal in Chile andDominica and Sureste I-Phase II in Mexico, while in the United States it is also developing the 150MW Origin in Oklahoma. Finally, in South Africa, EGP will build the two Gibson Bay and Cookhouse facilities, which will have a total installed capacity of 199MW.