Statkraft to Build Three Wind Farms Worth 102 MW in Chile

European renewable energy generator – Statkraft has announced that it will build its first wind farms in Chile, expanding its renewable energy generation capacity in the South American country amid increasing demand for hydro, wind and solar power in the southernmost nation in the world. 

Combined with the company’s existing hydropower assets, Statkraft will reach a generating capacity of 366 megawatt (MW) by the end of 2023. The 102 MW Torsa wind power project consists of three wind farms, totalling 19 wind turbines supplied by German manufacturer Nordex.

In total, the wind farms are expected to produce more than 300 GWh of renewable energy annually and will be located in the O’Higgins region, 124 kilometres south of the capital Santiago.

“These three wind farms are not only expanding our generating capacity in Chile; it is broadening our renewable energy portfolio by including wind power for the first time. Going forward, we’re also planning to include solar power into our generation mix,” says Executive Vice President, International Power in Statkraft, Jürgen Tzschoppe. “The South American nation is an attractive market for Statkraft and we want to capitalize on our combined expertise in power generation and market operations to best serve the market and provide energy to large industrial customers in the country.”

Construction will start during the second semester of 2021, and the first wind turbines are expected to start operation in October 2022. The project will utilise the Nordex N163/5.X wind turbine, the same type of turbines utilised in Statkraft’s ongoing Ventos de Santa Eugenia project in Brazil.

Recently, the Norwegian firm had announced the completion on construction of its second battery project just one year after it energised Kilathmoy, the first large-scale battery built in Ireland. As per the firm, the main purpose of the battery is not to store bulk wind generation but to respond instantly to the electrical frequency fluctuations that result from increasing amounts of intermittent power generation. Similar to Statkraft’s 11 MW Kilathmoy project which began operation in April 2020, Kelwin-2 is also a hybrid site where the battery shares a grid connection with a wind farm.