CNE: 140MW of renewable energy by 2007 - Nicaragua
Monday, June 28, 2004 16:49
Nicaragua's energy commission CNE plans to bring online about 140MW of renewable power by 2007 through investments estimated at some US$185mn, CNE president Raúl Solórzano told BNamericas.
The projects include a US$100mn, 66MW geothermal project, two 20MW wind projects valued at approximately US$22mn each and a US$40mn, 30-50MW hydroelectric project, he said.
Local company San Jacinto Power has just started construction on the three-stage geothermal project in the Managua department. The first two stages consist of four 5MW turbines. Completion of the first 10MW stage is scheduled for December and a subsequent 10MW is expected to come online by December 2006. In the third stage, an additional 46MW will be added through two 23MW turbines by end-2006 or early 2007.
Two separate wind development project companies, which Solórzano did not name, are currently making financing arrangements and have secured at least a portion of the capital needed through northern European companies where the technology for wind generation machinery is abundant, he said.
The two wind projects are expected to be in operations in about one and a half years.
Wind and run-of-the-river projects are attracting interest from many companies. But investors are waiting for the government to detail specific regulations that would characterize the projects as non-dispatchable, allowing them to inject power into the system without having a prior agreement with the system operator on the amount of electricity or when it is delivered.
"We have investors in wind energy that are not only interested in these projects, they are just waiting for [the non-dispatchable] regulations to be passed," Solórzano said, adding that he expects the regulations to be passed in the upcoming month.
The Honduran consortium Emce is developing the 30-50MW hydro project and is likely to decide the project's location "within the next few weeks," he said. Operations are set to begin in 2-2.5 years.
These projects contribute to the target of bringing online 150-180MW of renewable energy in Nicaragua by 2008, he said
