International Finance Corporation (IFC) unit of the World Bank will provide $300 million finance assistance for the 215 MW Penonome second phase wind project in Panama.
The project will utilize 86 Goldwind 2.5MW permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) wind turbines, representing Goldwind’s largest international wind turbine order.
On completion, the project is expected to be Central America’s largest wind farm.
The farm is scheduled to produce 448 GW of electricity every year.
Once the operation begins in 2015, the plant is expected to supplement 5 percent of Panama’s total annual power demand.
InterEnergy that owns and operates UEP Penonome II wind farm will also be responsible for major financing of this project.
Last year, the first phase of the project started operation, with a capacity to produce 55 MW of electricity.
The wind farm is forecast to cut carbon emissions by 400,000 tons annually.
The permanent magnet direct-drive wind turbines from Goldwind are designed to reduce the number of high-speed rotational parts avoiding the sources of expensive faults that require crane mobilization.
The energy demand of Panama region is expected to increase by as much as 8 percent annually with a forecast of $3 billion in investments over the next decade to keep pace with energy demands.
Sabeena Wahid
editor@greentechlead.com