Acciona’s Chiripa wind farm begins commercial operations in Costa Rica

Acciona Energía has begun commercial operations of the 49.5MW Chiripa wind farm in north-west Costa Rica.

The wind farm is located in the municipality of Tilarán (Guanacaste province) in north-west Costa Rica which has high wind potential allowing generation of over 200 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year.

Owned by a consortium comprising Acciona (65%) and local partner Grupo Ecoenergía (35%), the wind farm represents a total investment of $125m.

The power generated by the wind farm will be sold under a 20-year contract to the ICE.

The result of a contract awarded to the consortium for the purchase and sale of electricity from a wind farm with a capacity of up to 50MW, the facility feature 33 AW 77/1500 turbines which use Acciona Windpower technology.

Each wind turbine has a capacity of 1.5MW and a rotor diameter of 77m, mounted on 80m-high steel towers.

The power generated by the wind farm is equivalent to the consumption of 80,000 households in Costa Rica and will avoid the emission of around 192,000t of CO2 to the atmosphere from conventional coal-fired power stations.

Currently, the company developing 138MW wind farm in South Africa as well as a 45MW wind farm in Chile (100% owned by the company) which is due to enter service towards the end of 2014.

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