Nicaragua 44MW wind farm online (will produce 7% of country's electricity)

[jpak]

http://www.rechargenews.com/wind/article1326995.ece

Globeleq – owned by the London-based private-equity firm Actis – bought the project developer Eolo de Nicaragua last spring, with the first power fed into the grid in November.

All 22 Gamesa G90 turbines are now fully energised, and expected to generate 178GWh of electricity each year – equivalent to 7% of Nicaragua’s annual consumption.

Gamesa – which built the wind farm on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, some 120km south of the capital Managua – will stay on to handle operations and maintenance.

<not much more>

[FBaggins]

1. Stunning.

Nicaragua has a small area of really strong wind potential down on the Pacific coast near Costa Rica (fits the location mentioned)... but they appear to expect better than a 45% capacity factor out of turbines that I think are a 6-7 year old model.

Really impressive.

[Nihil]

2. Now that it's online, they can measure the actual output (and hence capacity factor) ...

... rather than just being subject to the usual "overestimate/underestimate" bickering
that surrounds every project these days.

And, in the meantime, they're getting power for the country as well as educating
themselves in renewable energy.