Aela Energía, the Chilean joint venture between Actis and Mainstream Renewable Power was today awarded Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for the supply of renewable energy from five wind farms in Chile with a combined generation capacity of 343 megawatts.
The agreements were awarded under a competitive tendering process run by the National Energy Commission (Comisi?n Nacional de Energ?a). With a combined investment value of approximately USD860 million, four of the facilities are expected to reach financial close during 2015 and commence construction shortly after. One of the facilities, the Negrete Wind Farm has been in operation since early 2014.
The PPAs, which will supply 26 Chilean distribution companies across the country, are for a term of 15 years and will power approximately 440,000 households annually. In 2013 Mainstream and global pan-emerging market investor Actis announced a joint venture to deliver 600 megawatts of wind and solar projects into construction and operation in Chile by 2016. The joint venture company Aela Energía is 40% owned by Mainstream and 60% by Actis. In addition to developing the projects, Mainstream will manage their construction and operation on behalf of the joint venture.
Commenting on the awards Mainstream’s Barry Lynch, Managing Director Onshore Procurement, Construction and Operations said: “Today is a very significant day for the Aela Energia, the Mainstream and Actis joint venture in Chile, and really puts it on the map as one of the leading renewable energy companies in the market. It is the first time PPAs of this magnitude have been awarded in Chile for renewable energy generation. Mainstream looks forward to managing this very ambitious construction programme once the projects reach financial close next year.”
Lucy Heintz, Head of renewable energy at Actis commented: “Winning these five projects is a huge achievement, with this we are well on the way to building Chile’s leading supplier of competitive renewable power. Actis sees wind power as a great solution for the emerging markets, in locations where optimal wind resources exist, we are looking forward to taking the next steps to deliver these projects into operation.”
Sergio del Campo, CEO of Aela Energia stated that “This award of contracts with Electricity Distributors allows us to realise five wind projects in the Central Interconnected System, thereby achieving an installed capacity of 343 megawatts and a total annual production of 1,140 gigawatt hours. The total investment required to comply with these contracts is around $860 million USD. This commitment of Aela Energia is undoubtedly an important contribution to meeting the demand and price competitiveness of energy for the benefit of households in our country.”
The projects awarded were:
- Negrete Wind Farm (33 megawatts) located in the Bio Bio region, has been in operation since early 2014.
- Alena Wind Farm (44 megawatts) located in the Bio Bio region.
- San Manuel Wind Farm (26 megawatts) located in the Bio Bio region.
- Sarco Wind Farm (150 megawatts) located in the Atacama region.
- Aurora Wind Farm (90 megawatts) located in the Los Lagos region.
Aela Energía is a renewable energy generation business. It was formed in June 2013 to deliver an initial pipeline of over 600MW of wind and solar projects into construction and operation by 2016 in Chile. The joint venture company is owned by Actis (60%), the pan-emerging markets private equity firm and Mainstream Renewable Power (40%), the global renewable energy developer. The projects have been fully developed by Mainstream and it will manage the construction and operation of the projects on behalf of Aela Energía.
Actis invests exclusively in the emerging markets with a growing portfolio of investments in Asia, Africa and Latin America; it currently has US$6.5 billion funds under management. Combining the expertise of over 120 investment professionals on the ground in nine countries, Actis identifies investment opportunities in three areas: private equity, energy and real estate.
The firm has a strong presence in Latin America and in the energy sector. Since 2002 Actis has deployed in excess of US$1.9bn in 27 energy transactions, across 20 countries, with installed capacity of 13,301MW in electricity generation and serving over 30 million customers.
It operates under the highest standards of ESG in the industry and helped the UN define the code for responsible investing. Actis is proud to actively and positively grow the value of those companies in which it invests and in so doing contribute to broader society.
Mainstream Renewable Power is one of the world’s leading independent developers of renewable energy projects. With a development pipeline of over 17GW globally it is currently constructing solar and wind farms across Ireland, South Africa, Chile and Canada.
As Europe’s leading independent offshore wind developer Mainstream is developing just under 8GW of offshore wind projects in England, Scotland and Germany with 4.45GW of secured grid connection for these offshore projects.
In Chile, Mainstream’s local team has been developing an advanced portfolio of more than 3,500 megawatts of wind and solar projects since 2008.
It has offices in Berlin, Cape Town, Chicago, Dublin, Glasgow, Johannesburg, London and Santiago.
