France-based Voltalia has recently announced that they will be commissioning two more wind farms in Brazil, totalling 211MW in the country’s Rio Grande do Norte state. The 152-MW VSM 3 and 59-MW VSM 4 power plants are part of the 2.4-GW Serra Branca wind and solar project which is said to be one of its kind, according to a press release. After the latest commissioning, the cluster now operates at a 1,084 MW capacity, out of which 811 MW is owned by the company.
Voltalia chief executive Sebastien Clerc said, “Our Serra Branca cluster continues to expand with the full commissioning of VSM3 and VSM4. It thus achieves an operating capacity of 1084MW, of which 273 are sold to third parties, to which are added 301MW under construction entirely sold to third parties.”
He also added that an additional 301 MW capacity is currently under construction and is already sold to third parties.
The VSM 3 output will be sold to a distribution company through a 20-year fixed priced inflation-indexed contract and Brazilian power utility Companhia Paranaense de Energia (BVMF: CPLE6) also known as Copel will acquire VSM 4 by November 30, 2021.
Spread across nearly 40,000 hectares of land, the VSM 4 wind farm will use 17 wind turbines supplied by the Nordex group. The energy generated by the new wind farm powers multiple companies that fall under the long-term power purchase agreement. It has also been reported that from the beginning of 2023, 7MW of clean energy will go to local power distribution companies under a 20-year contract and 52MW will go to a private off-taker, starting from 2022.