60,000
equivalent households
CLEAN, NON-POLLUTING ENERGY
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
1 in 8 people still do not have access to electricity. In order to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, it is necessary to increase the use of renewable energy from 25 % today to 38 % in 2025.
ACCIONA is positioning itself as a key player in addressing the growth in energy demand while curbing the progress of global warming and promoting the transition to a decarbonized energy model.
CLIMATE ACTION
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
The generation and use of energy is responsible for 74 % of total greenhouse gas emissions in the world. This activity is the largest contributor to global warming. Investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other low carbon technologies will continue to be essential to meet the new needs of humanity and to minimise their negative impact on the environment.
ACCIONA considers the fight against climate change and its related effects to be a strategic priority. The Company is working to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in order to contribute to the progress of society and respond to the main challenges of sustainable development in the areas of infrastructure, water and energy, leading the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The company’s first wind farm in Chile, able to produce clean energy for around 60,000 Chilean homes.
Operational since October 2014, it was opened by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on January 15th 2015. Punta Palmeras is a 45-megawatt (MW) capacity wind farm equipped with fifteen AW116/3000 ACCIONA Windpower wind turbines (3 MW each) mounted on steel towers with a hub height of 92 meters. They were the most powerful turbines installed in the country at the time.
They produce around 124 GWh per year, injected into the Central Interconnected Systems of Chile (SIC) under an energy sale contract signed with the electric utility Colbún, which had awarded the project to ACCIONA. Production from the wind farm will avoid the emission of 119,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations, and also the import of around 215,000 barrels of oil to generate the same energy.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Location: Canela, Coquimbo. Chile
- Capacity: 45 MW.
- Wind turbine: ACCIONA Windpower AW116/3000
- Tower:steel, hub height 92m
- Start-up:2014
- Owner:ACCIONA
KEY FIGURES
- Wind farm with the most powerful turbines in Chile at the time of installation.
- Foundations and installation of 15 wind turbines.
- 11.3 km of access roads/tracks
- 32.4 km of underground medium voltage network
- 220 kV substation
- New 6.8-km line built by ACCIONA to evacuate the power to the substation
- Steel tower 92 meters high in 5 sections, assembled on site
- Wind farm built in a semi-desert environment
- Plan to relocate plants (mainly cactuses) and small animals, and replanting of the soil with local species
Environmental impact management
ACCIONA has applied the environmental protection methodology that characterizes all its projects in the construction of Punta Palmeras. Specifically in this case, thousands of cactus and bromeliad plants commonly found in semi-arid areas have been relocated; local plant varieties have been planted in greenhouses for the later replanting of land affected by the building work, and a program to relocate small mammals, amphibians and reptiles in the area has been carried out.
Key figures
45
megawatts (MW) of power
15
wind turbines of 3MW of unitary power
60,000
of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere avoided per year
Technology and innovation
Turbine for life
Project that contributes to increasing the useful life of wind turbines, to knowing the state of the fleet and to detecting abnormal behaviour in order to optimise the management and the costs of operation and maintenance of the assets. For the analysis of the remaining life of the structural components, work is being done on developing physical models. To predict failures in Acciona's wind turbine fleet, work is being done along two lines: the development of WindBrain® to detect abnormal behaviour, and the use of Machine Learning to identify failure patterns in wind components.