Villar Mir Energía (VME) has invested 140 million euros in two new wind farms in Palencia and Huesca

Villar Mir Energía (VME), the energy division of the Villar Mir Group, continues to expand its portfolio of renewable energy projects with two new wind farms totaling 140 million euros of investment and a capacity of 200 MW.

On the one hand, the 100 MW Santa Maria de las Fuentes wind project in Astudillo, province of Palencia, has been submitted to public information. The park, with an investment of 70 million euros, has 6 MW state-of-the-art wind turbines and will avoid the emission into the atmosphere of 125,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Likewise, the public information process for the Valiente II park, also of 100 MW, in Gurrea de Gállego (Huesca), which represents an investment of another 70 million, has been completed.

After the corresponding authorizations, the company expects to start the construction of both parks in 2021 or the first half of 2022, depending on the progress in the processing.

VME has a portfolio of wind farms in operation, located in Aragon and Galicia, all of them merchant, that is, they operate without receiving a premium, auction income or without signing a long-term fixed price sale contract (PPA ). The viability of these parks has encouraged the company to follow the strategy of expanding its generation portfolio.

María Luisa Huidobro, CEO of VME, highlighted that “compared to other traditional energy sources, wind power is highly competitive due to the efficiency of the wind turbines and the price coverage system that we have been offering to renewable energy and cogeneration producers in the last years”.

Self-consumption and reversible pumping projects

Likewise, VME is processing a large solar project in the Community of Aragon that could supply part of the energy that the Ferroglobe factory would consume in the future.

In June, the company obtained a water concession from the Junta de Andalucía for the operation of a 356 MW reversible hydroelectric plant in Granada. VME expects to complete the necessary administrative authorizations in 2021 to start construction, which will involve an investment of around 300 million euros and the creation of 3,400 jobs.

Villar Mir Energía is the head of the Villar Mir Group for the development of its activities in the Energy Sector, promoting the construction of new renewable facilities and managing the market share of numerous generators.

In recent years Villar Mir has put into operation the Valiente (20MW), Tablares (12MW) and Sotillo (15MW) wind farms in the province of Zaragoza. Likewise, it is developing a volume of close to 1,000 MW of renewable energy, including wind and photovoltaic projects and a reversible hydroelectric plant.

In 2019, the energy division of the Villar Mir Group obtained very good results, ending the year as the seventh largest energy supplier in Spain, with a total of nearly 90,000 customers and sales of € 415M and an EBITDA of 12 , € 1M.