Global wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power has gained an environmental consent to build and operate the 182MW Aurora wind farm in Los Lagos region of Chile.
Initially, the company was planning to install 96 turbines, or a total 192 MW, but it failed to reach an agreement.
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As per environmental impact assessment, the company will conduct a geotechnical study for every wind turbine before construction to confirm the proposed foundations.
The project is expected to require investments of about US$400 mn (€358.8m).
The farm construction is expected to commence in the upcoming months. By far it is expected to provide power to about 280,000 homes when fully operational.
Mainstream Renewable Power project development manager Ricardo Sereño said: "We are delighted to get the green light to build and operate this project which will provide much needed clean energy as well as socio-economic benefits to the region.
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By GlobalData"Mainstream has over 2,000 megawatts of wind and solar projects in development throughout Chile and we expect to construct up to 1,000 megawatts in the next 5 years."
The wind farm will be built on a land dedicated to dairy and agriculture activities, which will continue to exist alongside.
The power will be connected via country’s central electricity transmission system (SIC) through an existing pipeline that is just next to the project.
Upon reaching financial close, Aurora will be transferred to Aela Energia, established by Actis and Mainstream in 2013.
However, Mainstream will continue to manage the construction and support the project operations on behalf of the joint venture.
Mainstream entered the Chilean market in 2008. Since then, it has built pipelines extensively and has reached over 2,000MW in development and 33MW fully operational farms.
Aela has potentially 600MW of wind and solar projects to deliver and are expected to be in operations by 2016 in Chile.
Image: Mainstream gets planning consent for the 182 megawatt Aurora wind farm in Chile. Photo courtesy by Mainstream Renewable Power, owned by Aela Energía
