EDP awards 500 MW of wind power at auction in Colombia

EDPR, the EDP renewable affiliate achieves a new milestone in the Latin American market. The Portuguese firm has been awarded two wind energy projects of almost 500 MW of total wind power in the auction held this Wednesday by the Government of Colombia.

The wind farms will be located in the north of the country and will be backed by the State, which will pay for the electricity sold during the next 15 years with a PPA (long-term fixed-price light sale agreement). The auction has awarded a total of 1,298 MW of wind turbines and solar energy.

“The PPA contracts contemplate the energy that will be produced by two wind farms – Alpha wind farm, with a capacity of 212 MW, and Beta wind farm, of 280 MW – whose commercial exploitation is planned for 2022. The prices established in the PPA contracts are at 23.27 euros / MWh and 24.86 euros / MWh, respectively, both indexed to the Colombian IPP, “EDPR said in a statement.

The closing of these contracts is somewhat lower than what was announced by EDPR at first. The firm announced on March 19 that these contracts in Colombia were for 20 years, which has now reduced them by 25%.

This represents an advance for the company in the Latin American wind energy market. The company has strong interests in the area. Both EDPR and EDP have a prominent presence in Brazil and Mexico. EDP ??is an increasingly prominent actor in the development of renewables.

In addition to the wide portfolio of projects that it has throughout the world (6,029MW in total in 14 markets), this 2019 reached an agreement with the French giant Engie to develop offshore wind energy. It is also present, through a joint venture with Repsol in the floating wind project in northern Portugal called Windfloat Atlantic.

The auction was organized by the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Colombia, which in spite of everything did not cover the demand that the Government was looking for, so the auction will still continue.

In a statement, Colombian President Iván Duque described the auction as a resounding success and said that in 14 months the country would go from less than 60 MW of installed renewable energy capacity to more than 2,250 MW, exceeding the government target of 1,500 MW.