By Leticia Fucuchima and Aluisio Alves
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – AES Brasil and Unipar Carbocloro signed a new energy self-production agreement, in a project that will involve investments of 510 million reais in wind power generation in the Northeast, both companies informed this Wednesday.
The partnership provides for the installation of a 91 megawatt (MW) power park at the Cajuína wind farm, which is being developed by AES Brasil in Rio Grande do Norte.
The companies will create a specific joint venture for the project, which follows the energy self-production model. The contract establishes the sale of an average 40 MW as of 2024, for a period of 20 years.
With the new agreement, Unipar will produce 80% of the electricity it consumes. The forecast is for the unit to start operating at the end of 2023, according to the CEO of Unipar, Mauricio Russomano.
“The energy generated will be used by Unipar to produce green hydrogen,” Russomano told Reuters, referring to the product generated without emission of pollutants.
This is the third joint venture for power generation announced by Unipar since it launched its plan for the area 18 months ago. Since then, it has announced two projects — one wind with AES Brasil, in Bahia, and another solar energy in Minas Gerais with Atlas Renewable Energy.
The announcement comes even amid Unipar’s plans to build up to two factories for the production of chlorine and soda in the Northeast region of the country. Possible locations for installation in Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco or Sergipe are being analyzed.
As for AES Brasil, the new project represents an advance in the contracting of the complete Cajuína — the largest being developed by the company today —, as well as competitive differentials for electricity in relation to other generators in the market, said Rogerio Jorge, vice president to Reuters of AES Brasil’s Customer Relationship.
“Our degree of uncertainty regarding Capex (investment) is much lower, because of the availability of machines. And today, customers do more ‘due diligence’, ask for management plans from local communities, it’s not just about buying renewable energy. Unipar is already our partner, they see how we manage the environmental licensing, the project for the qualification of women in Tucano”, added Jorge.
Also according to the AES executive, the decision to build a wind farm in a different location from the first brings some advantages, such as geographic diversification, which will allow the use of winds from each region.
AES Brasil has been developing two wind farms in the Northeast at the same time. Cajuína has almost 1.3 gigawatt (GW) of installed capacity, and 473 MW already have contracts with large energy consumers, such as Alcoa, BRF, Ferbasa and Minasligas. Tucano, in Bahia, has 322 MW contracted and another 260 MW available for sale.
After the announcement of the deal, AES Brasil updated in a separate release its total investment projections for the period 2021-2025, to approximately 3.9 billion reais.
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