Uruguay Developers Offer Cheaper Power from Private Wind Farms

Uruguay’s, Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining Ramon Mendez, notined that by 2015 Uruguay could have $1.3 billion dollars of wind farms after developers promised cheaper electricity than that from conventional fuel powered plants.

Mendez added that Uruguay’s national power company Usinas y Trasmisiones Electricas (UTE) could purchase electricity from 600 megawatts of projects from companies that participated in an auction for new wind farms, four times more than expected.

Mendez said, “The bids are amazing. I was quite surprised when I first saw them,”
Diario El Pais newspaper reported.

 The companies participating in the auction included Spain’s Enerfin Sociedad de Energia SA, which offered to provide power for as low as $62.35 a megawatt-hour.

The bids have led Uruguay’s government to consider purchasing more wind power.

Wind power’s attractive low rates are not limited to Uruguay, as wind power companies in August submitted the lowest bids in a similar auction in Brazil.

Mendez noted that Uruguay’s average cost of electrical power generation is $73 a megawatt hour, which could drop as low as $45 within the next four years as Uruguay receives more of its energy from wind, biomass and liquefied natural gas-fuelled power plants.

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com