Voltalia signed PPA and started wind farm, at Serra Branca in Brazil

Voltalia signed a power sales contract and started construction of its new VSM 3 wind farm, at Serra Branca in Brazil
Serra Branca is the biggest wind-and-solar cluster worldwide

Voltalia (Euronext Paris, ISIN code: FR0011995588), an international player in renewable energies, announces today it has signed a new long-term power sale agreement and started the construction of VSM 3, a 150 megawatts wind farm.

“The new VSM 3 wind farm will be built in a short time frame, thanks to the Serra Branca cluster transmission infrastructures, completed in September 2019, and strong synergies with ongoing construction of VSM 1&2. With a 2.4 gigawatts potential, our Serra Branca cluster of wind and solar farms is the world’s largest mixed cluster in the world”, comments Sébastien Clerc, Chief Executive Officer of Voltalia.
Construction of the 150 megawatts new VSM 3 wind farm has already started. Voltalia has currently 371 megawatts under construction in its Serra Branca cluster and can rely on its long-term partners: Siemens Gamesa is supplying the turbines, while DoisA provides services related to civil work, and SETA and WEG the electrical balance of plant.
For this new wind plant, Voltalia has secured a 20-year power sale contract with a Brazilian utility. The first wind turbines are expected to begin production during Q4 2020 with full operation to be reached in Q2 2021. The plant will be 90% owned by Voltalia, with a local partner owning the remaining 10%.

Serra Branca is now the biggest mixed wind plus solar cluster worldwide
Since 2009, Voltalia has developed from scratch a site with very favourable characteristics:

  • The site covers an area of approximately 40 000 hectares within a 50 by 15 kilometres area.
  • The site benefits from very attractive wind and solar conditions. Some of Voltalia’s operating wind farms enjoy a 52% capacity factor on average since 2015 thanks to the trade winds patterns, which also permit excellent solar irradiation condition.
  • As of today, the site includes 379 megawatts of operating plants, 917 megawatts of plants under construction and 329 more megawatts of capacity which are not yet under construction but for which long-term power sales contracts have been secured, plus over 700 MW of projects under development.
  • Voltalia has already built high-voltage substations and transmission lines (up to 500 kV) capable of exporting production of wind and solar plants with a total capacity of more than 2.4 gigawatts.
Project NameCapacityTechnologyStatusOwner
Areia Branca90 MWWindOperationVoltalia
Vamcruz93 MWWindOperationVoltalia
Vila Para99 MWWindOperationVoltalia
Vila Acre27 MWWindOperationVoltalia
VSM 1&2 in op.70 MWWindOperationVoltalia
VSM 1&2 in const.221 MWWindConstructionVoltalia
VSM 3150 MWWindConstructionVoltalia
VSM 459 MW WindContractedVoltalia
SSM 1&2270 MWSolar ContractedVoltalia
Vilas 479 MWWindSold / constructionEchoenergia (Actis)
Filgueiras 67 MWWind Sold / constructionTotal-Eren
Future projectsOver 700 MWSolar and Wind Development Voltalia
TotalOver 2 400 MWSolar and Wind

With substations and transmissions lines already built and capable to support renewable energy plants with a capacity of more than 2.4 gigawatts, the Serra Branca renewable energy site is the largest mixed wind-and-solar cluster in the world.

Voltalia in Brazil
The success story of Voltalia in Brazil goes well beyond the Serra Branca cluster.
Voltalia also owns wind, solar, hydro and hybrid projects in various locations in Brazil, including: the SMG wind farm in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (108 megawatts, in operation); the hybrid Oiapoque projects in the State of Amapá (23.5 megawatts of which 16 megawatts in operation); the Cabui hydro project in the States of Minas Gerais (16 megawatts, secured in 2019); and the Canudos 1 wind farm in the State of Bahia (90 megawatts secured in 2019 and part of the Voltalia Canudos cluster with a one  gigawatt potential).