Cuel Wind Power, Chile

Chile has ambitious plans for renewable energy sources like wind and solar. By 2035, the government wants a majority of electricity generated in the country to come from renewable sources, and by 2050 the goal is for over two thirds of to come from renewables.

This project installed 22 new wind turbines in El Morro in the region of Bio Bio, Chile, which is 500 km south of Santiago. The clean, renewable power generated will feed into Chile’s Sistema Interconectado Central (Central Interconnected Grid) the main national power grid. The project activity supplies zero-emissions electricity to the grid, thus avoiding greenhouse gases emissions by displacing fossil-fuel power plants. The wind farm construction and maintenance also contribute to the global transfer of skills and resources needed to achieve a zero-emission future.

Cuel is a wind electricity generation power plant project located in the district of El Morro, Los Ángeles Commune, in the VIII Region of Biobío, Chile, and involves the installation and operation of a wind farm consisting of 22 wind turbines of 1.5 MW each, with a total installed capacity of 33.0 MW. 

The wind turbines of the project have unit transformers that elevate the energy generated from 690V to 23kV. The energy from the wind turbines is conducted through an underground cable (23kV) to the project substation where the energy is transformed from 23kV to 154kV. From this point the energy is injected to the grid. The Cuel Wind Farm Project generates approximately 96.8 GWh per year of electricity and generates an average of 55,000 tCO2 of emission reductions per year. 

The Cuel Wind Farm Project is a Greenfield project that displaces the dispatch of thermoelectric power plants currently operating in the system, therefore, the baseline scenario is the electricity delivered by the grid. The project allows the supply of clean energy to the system, contributing with the greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction, reducing the dependence of the Chilean electricity system on imported fossil fuel, thus contributing with the sustainable development of the country. 

In addition to delivering approximately 55,000 tonnes of emission reductions each year, the project delivers other sustainable development benefits. These include:

• Affordable and Clean Energy: The project will generate electricity from a clean, inexpensive (i.e. zero marginal cost) source of energy as compared with thermal power plants that require expensive fossil fuels to operate.
• Climate Action: This project reduces total greenhouse gas emissions per year by displacing fossil fuel powered electricity.