Neuquén has eight feasible and enabled wind farms with all the procedures to connect them to the national electrical system thate total 1,000 megawatts, an equivalent to what El Chocón can produce, in wind energy.
Neuquén winds have ahe 100 megawatts that is working in the area of Bajada Colorada and Picún Leufú located about 20 kilometers with another 100 megawatts which is advanced.
For the other six remaining no “we have space in the national electrical system because high voltage power lines were not built in Argentina for a long time”, said the head of the Investment Agency, ADI, José Brillo. A situation that was experienced with some drama by the gas production of Vaca Muerta.
The absence of investment to develop the productive sectors of the country is not attributable to a government, it is a constant. In the management of Mauricio Macri, Minister Javier Iguacel created the Private Participation Program with which they were going to build power lines, oil pipelines, gas pipelines and railway lines, which were not done.
“If we had that infrastructure today, we would have a Chocón in wind energy, to which are added the projects of the Nahueve dam, the exploitation of Los Guiones in the same river and Colo Michi Co in Neuquén, to which are added the solar projects.
Bahía Blanca and Puerto Madryn pdue to its proximity to consumption centers, 300 kilometers from the distribution center of Buenos Aires, or Because of the access to the conduction lines, they were able to develop wind farms.
In addition to Neuquino winds and Picún Leufú that are in the Limay line, There are Loma Jarillosa – 8 kilometers from El Chañar going towards Rincón de los Sauces -, in Zapala are Los Pocitos and La Americana, and Cerro Senillosa, above the fence in the town.
One of the few conduction lines between the Alicurá power plant with Bariloche and Villa La Angostura is being built with a million-dollar investment. The Neuquén Provincial Energy Entity built a 50-kilometre underground pipeline to lead it to the town.
The Picún Leufú wind farm has a 20-year contract to sell energy for around 600 million dollars, it already has assigned capacity to inject energy. SIt would be a park with public investment for which it is expected to request authorization to issue a title for 200 million dollars that will be paid with the sale of energy. In any case -said Brillo- an indebtedness of these characteristics in a period of political transition is difficult.
The provision of inputs for the installation of mills is at a good time because the wind turbine factories are in the country and beyond the financial complications “we are in a good situation in terms of the provision of technology,” Brillo told radio UNC CALF.
He added that an option was being given regarding the importation of wind turbines used from Europe, smaller, to install smaller parks like on the coast ofand Buenos Aires.
One of the aspects that wind or solar energy has is that it is produced when there is wind or solar exposure, but it cannot be saved, so lithium is presented as one of the relevant elements for that objective.
In Domuyo there is a project to take advantage of with a 5 megawatts geothermal energy would be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank which isIt had been supporting it with a non-refundable fund that, until now, had disbursed some 200,000 dollars. It requested a pause until January.
The El Alamito solar park is ready to inject and an infrastructure for the EPEN is being built: a center for the protection and distribution of the electrical system, a strengthening that has almost the same value as the park, one million dollars, which is estimated to be finished in October.
Option
AES is the concessionaire of Alicurá and it made Vientos Neuquinos, it is close, and there is the possibility of implementing a system that is being developed in the United States, which Bill Gates calls reversible hydroelectric plants. El Chocón is also in this situation with the Picún Leufú park.
The idea is that with wind energy, the turbined water can be pumped to be turbined again at a cheaper cost because the price of wind energy is half, more or less, that of hydraulics.
This was done in a dozen plants in the United States. It can be turbinated several times. In Bill Gates’ book on page 125 the reversible hydroelectric plan is detailed.
national claim
The Argentine Wind Chamber presented a study on the expansion of the transportation system, decarbonization commitments, goals and economic results: urgent reasons to accelerate a pending task.
He wrote that the main limit facing a greater deployment of renewable generation today is the remaining transmission capacity in the electrical system.
“Neither the Law nor the commitments assumed in the COP 26 have gone hand in hand with the development of specific tools for the expansion of the high-voltage transmission system that are consistent with said goals,” the chamber indicated, adding that no managed to articulate a scheme that allows clear goals to be drawn up for the expansion of the system, and mechanisms to move from studies to plans, from there to tenders and to materialize the projects.
The private sector, which has shown in recent years that “with a clear regulatory framework, it has a concrete decision to invest in the development and construction of projects, could accompany or complement an investment plan.”xpansion of the transport system oriented to the incorporation of renewable energy led by the National State”.
He clarified that the high costs of this type of works, which would also result in benefits for the system as a whole, imply that it would not be possible to fully internalize contracts in the renewable development plan with such important investments in transportation by the private sector.
He clarified that within the existing mechanisms for the development of the transport system at the head of the private sector “expansion for public interest could be an alternative.”
The private sector, and in particular the Wind Chamber, “has the vocation of actively collaborating so that the convergence of interests is transformed into concrete projects that stimulate activity and allow the goals set by the National State to be met.”
There are currently 58 wind farms in operation in the country.
There are projects underway, both construction and expansion that will result in a greater number of wind turbines and, consequently, in greater energy production.
Some examples: the Park La Elbita Wind Farm, in the province of Buenos Aires; the San Luis Norte Wind Farm, in San Luis, and the Vivoratá Park, in Buenos Aires; the Aluar Wind Farm, in Puerto Madryn; and the Arauco Wind Farm, in La Rioja.
The two advantages of the sun and the wind in Neuquén
The Secretary of Coordination of the municipality of Neuquén, Alejandro Nicola, reported that the production of renewable energy is one of the issues that the management has set based on climate change.
In the area of expansion of the common land of the city that added 8 thousand to the 12 thousand it had, where there is exploitation of oil resources, land was used to generate a solar park.
The project was offered to the CALF Cooperative to install a solar park, first with a pre-feasibility study to see if it was possible. There is the land reserve, some 100 hectares of surface that would allow the installation of a park of 50 megawatts of power, more or less a quarter of the power consumption that the city of Neuquén has at peak demand.
The first study of the resource “gave that it had very good conditions” in terms of the intensity of the sun, the characteristics of the wind, humidity, the presence of dust, etc. Then -he specified- a technological analysis was made in relation to the panels, the support systems and “at this moment the soil studies are being carried out to drive the panel supports”.
It also analyzes how this energy is incorporated into the system. “This stage has already been studied and the study for the development of the entire area that plans to install industrial parks and 8,000 lots with service is complemented.”
Once the studies are finished, the costs must be quantified to go out and look for investors.
Nicola indicated that solar energy was always thought of as an incentive and not wind power and put his knowledge on the matter at stake to affirm that “we have more solar potential than wind power in the area.”
In the preliminary study that was done, the area was compared with San Juan, which is one of the best in the country in terms of solar radiation. The province of Cuyo has the equivalent of the entire demand with solar energy. “We have less radiation but the temperature and wind characteristics make the performance of the panels better because the breeze that blows cleans the panel, something that does not happen in San Juan,” he described.
The dust lowers the performance of the panels because it makes it not take advantage of the radiation. In San Juan they have to clean them, on the other hand, in the area, the breeze makes the dust that is not attached spread.