Iberdrola Renovables, in a consortium with Neoenergia, with whom it signed a collaboration agreement this month, committed to supplying the electricity generated in these wind farm facilities to the Brazilian government for a 20-year period, starting in January 2013. The annual amount entailed in the contract awarded yesterday is about €60 million (130 million reales).
Iberdrola Renovables, with more than 11,400 MW of installed wind energy capacity at the end the first half of 2010, already owns a Brazilian wind farm, Río do Fogo, with installed capacity of 49 MW.
Iberdrola Renovables, global leader in wind power, in consortium with Neoenergia, a Brazilian energy holding company, and Iberdrola investee, has been awarded the contract for nine new wind farms in Brazil, with total installed capacity of 258 MW.
The contract award took place in Rio de Janeiro, during the second tender process for renewable energies in the country, organised by the Agencia Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (Aneel).
Iberdrola Renovables committed to supply the electricity generated at these wind turbines facilities to the Brazilian government for a 20-year period, starting in January 2013. The annual amount of the contract awarded yesterday by Aneel is about €60 million (130 million reales).
The company was awarded the most megawatts during the tender process, in which contracts for 50 wind farms (1,520 MW), five hydroelectric plants (101 MW), and a biomass facility (64 MW) were granted to several different operators.
This contract is the first to originate from the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Iberdrola Renovables, and Neoenergia, in which they committed to work together to develop and jointly operate onshore and offshore wind farms in Brazil.
The goal of the agreement is to capitalise on the experience of the world leader in the wind industry and the market position of the top power distributor in north-eastern Brazil, with its 8.8 million customers. Similarly, the agreement aims to leverage both companies’ financial strength to drive growth in one of Latin America’s most promising wind markets.
Within the framework of the agreement, Iberdrola Renovables and Neoenergia, who are considering eventually forming a 50-50 joint venture, announced that they would jointly participate in the future tenders held by Brazil’s Agencia Nacional de Energía Eléctrica, including the one held yesterday.
Iberdrola Renovables reinforces its presence in Latin America
Iberdrola Renovables already has one wind farm in Brazil, the Río do Fogo farm in the state of Río Grande do Norte. The site has installed capacity of 49 MW.
The company also has assets in Mexico at the La Ventosa (80 MW) wind farm, which is in operation, and the La Venta III (103 MW) site, which is under construction. It ended the first half of 2010 with installed capacity totalling 11,406 MW: 11,010 MW in wind farms and 342 MW in mini-hydro facilities.
Iberdrola Renovables has 5,194 MW of installed wind capacity in Spain (a total of 5,536 MW from renewable sources, including mini-hydro power stations) and a further 5,516 MW abroad (3,877 MW in the US, 816 MW in the UK and 1,123 MW elsewhere).
Iberdrola Renovables generated net profit of €158.1 million in the first half of 2010, up 6.5% year-on-year, as it continued to improve its financial position, illustrated by gearing of just 28%.
Iberdrola regards Brazil, where it has operated since the late 1990s, as one of the key countries in its Latin American expansion. Through Neoenergia, Iberdrola is the leading electricity distributor in north-eastern Brazil, accounting for more than 44% of the regional market at the end of 2009.
The distributors in which Iberdrola holds stakes, Cosern (Rio Grande state), Celpe (Pernambuco state) and Coelba (Bahía state) supplied 28,300 GWh to nearly 8.8 million users in 2009. As for the generation business, the company managed capacity of 1,340 MW last year, with attributable output exceeding 2.85 billion kWh.
Iberdrola Renovables will be the Iberdrola Group subsidiary assigned to develop the content of the MOU the company signed with Neoenergia, in accordance with the framework contract signed by the renewable energy unit and the parent company on 5 November 2007.
