GE announced it has won 545 megawatts (MW) of orders for wind turbines in Brazil’s A-3 auction. GE secured 63 percent of the capacity of 867 MW auctioned on November 18.
Between this week’s auction and the reserve power auction that took place in August, GE secured a total of 1 gigawatt (GW) of commitments for wind energy.
Currently GE has 1 GW of installed wind capacity in Brazil. The company is also installing another 400 MW of wind, and with this year’s auctions, it has secured an additional 1 GW of commitments, said Jean-Claude Robert, general manager of Latin America for GE’s renewable energy business.
GE will provide 1.7-100 and 1.85-82.5Â
GE also will service the wind turbines for 10 years as part of an operations and maintenance agreement that includes an availability guarantee for the 26 wind farms.
In the November 18 auction, the new wind capacity was contracted at an average rate of R$124/MWh (US$54/MWh). The Brazilian government held this auction to meet demand for the country’s electricity needs in 2016.
In September, GE announced that it had installed its 500th wind turbine in Brazil. The 1.6-MW turbine was installed at DESA’s 38-MW Eurus project in João Camara in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
GE has a presence in Brazil since 1919 and today, employs more than 8,500 people in the country. The company has operations throughout Brazil, including in Bahia, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.
Also read: E.ON Climate & Renewables selects GE PowerUp to increase wind farm output