Colombia, ready to open another wind power plant in La Guajira

Colombia will launch a wind power plant at the end of the month, which will reinforce the generation matrix, from clean sources.

It is the Guajira 1 wind farm, a project being developed by Isagen and which will mark a milestone by being the first to deliver this type of electric current to the National Interconnected System (SIN).

“The complex is already fully built, and it is the first wind generation park that will deliver energy to the country. The wind turbine testing stages are beginning and their entry into operation is scheduled for the last week of January, ”said the Minister of Mines and Energy, Diego Mesa, emphasizing that the country“ continues to make steady progress in the energy transition and the incorporation of renewable energies, coming from the sun and the wind ”.

The installed capacity of the Guajira 1 wind farm will be 20 megawatts (MW), and in turn each wind turbine has an installed capacity of 2 MW, with blades, each 49 meters long, producing a diameter of almost 100 meters. “Between one and two months, Guajira 1 may already be in the commercial stage,” the official stressed.

(See: Europe and Oceania shake hands with the country in renewable energy).

For his part, Camilo Marulanda, president of Isagen, stressed that “we are working on a growth strategy in renewable technologies, with an internal portfolio whose potential is to exceed 1,500 MW in unconventional clean electricity generation with wind plants in La Guajira.”

This work is part of a package of four wind farms that will begin their assembly, or will enter into operation before September of this year.

In addition to Guajira 1, there are the Alpha and Beta complexes developed by EDPR, which will be 25 times larger in size than the one developed by Isagen, since only its installed capacity will be 504 MW, not counting that the wind turbines will have an installed capacity of 5.6MW, and whose blades measure 80 meters, which allows a diameter length of 160 meters.

“This project, which consists of 90 wind turbines between the two parks, will begin its assembly before the end of the second quarter,” stressed Minister Mesa.
The official stressed that for these two projects, their entry into operation will depend on the development of the assembly of the transmission line “that ISA is currently building.”

In the same sense, the multinational EDPR, stressed with respect to the two wind complexes that, “the projects were remunerated by the stability of the electrical system, in addition to the electricity they produce. Now, EDPR will seek to secure long-term power purchase agreements with third parties (known as PPAs) to sell the electricity produced by both farms, ”says a statement from the multinational.

The third wind farm that will also be located in this area of ??the country is the second phase of Guajira 1, which would begin its construction phase in March, would come into operation at the beginning of the third quarter, and which together make up the Wesp 1 complex, and that in total it will have an installed capacity of 35 MW.

The four wind farms are added to three solar plants and a thermoelectric infrastructure that in total will provide the country with an installed capacity of more than 1,000 MW.