Acciona Energia breaks ground on 183MW San Gabriel wind farm in Chile

Wind industry news : Spanish wind energy company Acciona Energia has commenced construction on its 183MW San Gabriel wind farm in Chile with an aim to begin its commercial operations in September 2019.

The San Gabriel wind farm, which is being built in the region of La Araucanía, is capable of meeting the power consumption needs of more than 270,000 houeholds.

Acciona Energia will be the owner and operator of this new Chilean wind farm which was won by the Spanish wind industry company during the National Electricity Commission’s energy tender in August 2016.

The San Gabriel wind farm, located 5km east of the town of Renaico, will generate 506 GWh of power annually. This Chilean wind power project would offset 632,000 tonnes metric tons of CO2 which would otherwise be emitted each year by coal-fired power stations of similar capacity.

Acciona Energia is developing the San Gabriel wind farm in Chile. Photo courtesy of Acciona Energia.

For Acciona Energia, San Gabriel wind farm is its second wind power project after the 45MW wind farm it operates in Punta Palmeras, in the Coquimbo region.

Commenting on the development of the San Gabriel wind farm, José Ignacio Escobar, who is the General Manager of Acciona Energia Chile, said: “It is with great satisfaction that we announce the start of building work on a new renewables facility in Chile, demonstrating ACCIONA’s commitment to the country through concrete actions and our solvency and reliability when it comes to materializing projects that help to create an ever more sustainable energy system in our country.”

Over 500 jobs will be created during the construction phase of Acciona Energia new wind power project – the San Gabriel wind farm which will feature 61 AW132/3000 wind turbines that will be based on Nordex Acciona Windpower technology.

Each turbine of the San Gabriel wind power project will be of 3MW capacity and will have a rotor diameter of 132m and a hub height of 120m. The wind turbines are equipped with anti-earthquake technology as well.

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