Siemens Gamesa Secures Turbine Orders Worth 180 MW in Chile

Siemens Gamesa has received two orders in South America for the supply and installation of wind turbines at two sites of a wind energy cluster in Chile.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has announced that it has received two orders in South America for the supply and installation of wind turbines at two sites of a wind energy cluster in Chile.

The first order worth 60 MW has been received to extend the Cabo Leones 1 wind project in Chile, operated by the joint venture formed by the French utility EDF Renewables Chile and Spain’s Grupo Ibereólica Renovables. Under the terms of the agreement, Siemens Gamesa will supply, transport and install 12 of its SG 5.0-145 MW turbines for the Cabo Leones 1 extension wind complex at Comuna de Freirina, in the second region of the Atacama in Chile.

The second, the firm secured a new order from Ibereólica Renovables to supply 110-MW capacity for the second phase of Cabo Leones III wind park, in Chile. The company will deliver 22 of its SG 5.0-145 wind turbines and will also operate and maintain them for 10 years.

With this second order, Siemens Gamesa becomes the supplier-of-choice for the entire Cabo Leones cluster, which totals 598.8 MW and is located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. This amounts to 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions avoided, the equivalent of taking nearly 988,000 diesel vehicles off the road annually or growing 24 million trees. The complex will feature a wide range of the firms’ technologies spanning from 2-MW turbines to the latest Siemens Gamesa 4.X platform.

Gregorio Álvarez, President of the Ibereólica Renovables Group, stated that he is very satisfied to have once again placed his trust in Siemens Gamesa and its new 4.X platform to continue growing in Chile. The Cabo Leones wind farm complex, which will have an installed capacity of nearly 600 MW by mid-2021 and has been entirely supplied by Siemens Gamesa, is already a reference for both Grupo Ibereólica Renovables and Siemens Gamesa.

“We are honoured to be trusted again by Ibereólica Renovables for a new project in Chile, further reinforcing our partnership. We have grown stronger together in this country, which aims to eradicate the use of coal-fired electricity generators by 2040. The Cabo Leones cluster will play a key role in enabling this,” said Enrique Pedrosa, Onshore Chief Regions Officer for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

Chile’s National Energy Policy 2050 sets ambitious targets to support the country’s transition to clean energy sources. Already 25 percent of the country’s installed capacity comes from renewable energy sources, of which 9 percent is from wind power.

Siemens Gamesa will supply the turbines between November 2020 and January 2021 for the first order. The current Cabo Leones I extension also includes and operation & maintenance agreement for the next 12 years. And the Cabo Leones III farm is scheduled to start operations in June 2021, and the firm will complete the delivery of its turbines by December 2020.