Brazilian renewables developer Renova Energia is facing a potential loss in revenue after regulators claimed ten wind farms were installed several weeks late.
The company has queried an issuance by Brazil’s power sector authority Aneel which claims the sites were not officially ready to start exporting power until at least 26 days after a contractual deadline.
The sites in question consist of 127 GE 1.6MW turbines and form the bulk of Renova’s flagship 294.4MW Alto Sertão I wind complex in Bahía state.
The developer said the facility’s entire 14 wind farms were ready to operate by the deadline of 1 July 2012 established for projects contracted at Brazil’s first federal wind auction in 2009.
However, Aneel said only four of the schemes were ready by this date, with the remainder deemed complete from 27 July and 29 August.
The wind farms cannot export power until 2013 due to the delayed installation of a transmission line, which is the responsibility of utility CHESF. Renova will receive power payments as if the sites had been generating from the date they were deemed complete by Aneel.
Renova said it is “in contact with Aneel to better understand the criteria used to determine the date of recognition of the wind farm operations since the company believes that all wind farms were fully prepared to start operations on schedule i.e., on July 1st, 2012.”
Elsewhere, Aneel is reportedly to sue CHESF R$300 million for the late delivery of the Alto Sertão I transmission line and two other delayed Brazilian wind wires in Bahía and Rio Grande do Norte states.
Installers recommend sites with average wind speeds of at least 12 mph, but specific land requirements vary. Zoning codes sometimes impose a minimum requirement on lot size or on the distance a turbine may be placed from a property line and may vary depending on the height of the proposed turbine.
Also, it is essential to have a site with unobstructed access to winds, which most often requires higher towers, larger land lots, and non-urban locations.
Small wind facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations and utility companies increasingly buy back surplus electricity produced by small domestic wind turbines. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network and can be located either in-land (onshore) or in bodies of water (offshore). Offshore wind farms can harness more frequent and powerful winds than are available to land-based installations.
A large contribution from wind energy to European power generation is technically and economically feasible. In 2011, installed wind power capacity in the European Union totalled 93.957 MW, enough to supply 6.3% of the EU’s demand for electricity. EWEA’s analysis of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) showed an envisaged installed capacity of 213 GW of wind power which is forecast to produce 495 TWh of electricity in 2020. Taking the 27 NREAPs’ additional energy efficiency scenario, EU gross electricity demand is scheduled to grow to 3.529 TWh in 2020. Wind energy would, therefore, meet roughly 14% of the EU’s demand.
Installers recommend sites with average wind speeds of at least 12 mph, but specific land requirements vary. Zoning codes sometimes impose a minimum requirement on lot size or on the distance a turbine may be placed from a property line and may vary depending on the height of the proposed turbine.
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