Instead of slow and steady, it’s rather a question of quick and steady with Uruguay: last fall they announced an 800 MW wind power plan by 2015 and now they came back with a revised prospect of 1000 MW.
And it’s been like this for a few years now: the 2007 large-scale, last-generation Caracoles Wind Farm of an impressive 20 MW capacity, 43 operational MW in 2011 and subsequent goals to have 50 MW plants built. So it seems the South American country knows its business and how to go about it. After all, they “are a small country, they can do things” down there, as Energy Secretary Ramón Méndez Galain proudly stated.
The more is the country maximizing its wind power capacity, the more are prices falling: the 3.3 million population was already enjoying a good price of $85/MWh at the beginning of 2011, only to see their bills go even cheaper by August same year down to $63.50 per Mwh.
Ever since that period, the people in Uruguay welcome windy summer nights, because that’s when they get the most for their wind industry: between 80 and 90% of the grid’s energy. Not to rejoice in other peoples’ misfortune, but I guess that 2007 drought did good in the end, moving interest from hydroelectric and oil-based power plants to wind farms.
[via Cleantechnica]
