Argentina: historic record in wind power with 68 wind farms in operation

Wind farms in Argentina. Although the history of wind farms in Argentina has several decades already, its boom began about 10 years ago, with the help of the RenovAr program. To date, throughout the country, there are 68 wind farms in operation. And, last month they contributed a record generation of 2,249 GW/h.

According to the records of the Wholesale Electric Market Administration Company (Cammesa), two regions of the country are the ones that strongly concentrate the majority of the developments: the province of Buenos Aires and the Patagonia region, which is counted from Chubut to the south.

Precisely, it is the southern zone, which is strongly concentrated in Chubut, which has the largest number of wind farms. Since there are 28 complexes operating there, separately counting the properties that have several stages of development, such as the Loma Blanca and Rawson wind farms.

Using the same criteria, in the province of Buenos Aires there are 26 wind farms that take advantage of the winds that come from the sea. While in the central region of the country there are 6 developments. 4 in the Comahue area that actually includes Neuquén, Río Negro and La Pampa; and 4 more in the Northwest.

In total, the 68 wind farms in the country have an installed capacity of 4,193 MW. Although it is clear that due to the variable load factors depending on the will of the wind, the real contribution is much lower, and has a record mark registered last month. There are 15 complexes that exceed 100 MW of installed capacity
There are 15 complexes that exceed 100 MW of installed capacity

Of the 68 wind farms in the country, there are a handful that stand out for what we could define as XL parks, given that they have an installed capacity of more than 100 MW. The largest park in terms of capacity in the country is in Buenos Aires and is San Jorge and El Mateco, which totals 203.4 MW of capacity.

Next in size is the Aluar Autogeneración park with 174.6 MW of installed capacity in Chubut. La Elbita in Buenos Aires with 162 MW and Puerto Madryn II with 151.2 MW.

The list of properties over 100 MW is completed by Los Teros, De la buena ventura, La Castellana, Mario Cebreiro and Pampa Energía VI in Buenos Aires. In Patagonia, Loma Blanca VI, Cañadón León, and Del Bicentenario are located.

In the central region, the San Luis Norte park has an installed capacity of 1012.5 MW, and in Río Negro Pomona I it registers 101.4 and Vientos Neuquinos I, in Neuquén, 100.5 MW.

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But it is not all about “blowing and making bottles.” Since what is most sought with this type of development is to have a good load factor. Which depends on having regular winds but not being so strong as to force the detection of the windmills.

The park that this year had the best load factor in the country – and even one of the best in the world – is Manantiales Behr in Chubut. Which shows an average for the whole year of 58.4%, which last month rose to 68.37%.

Of the 68 complexes in operation in the country, 16 have a load factor of over 50% for the year to date. Three out of four of these are located in the Patagonia region, where 12 of the best parks in the country are located.