Aiming to develop wind power in Panama, a country which is planning on strengthening its investment in renewables over the next few years, Ingeteam and Goldenwind launched programs respectively to develop a total of approximately 380MW of wind projects.
Ingeteam, a developer of electrical equipment and generating plans, enters into Panama by opening a new subsidiary and is constructing the first wind farm in the country, which is also the largest one in Central America. It has carried out the O&M work on 22 wind turbines and installed 55MW of power. Additionally, Ingeteam are planning to extend the wind farm with 66 turbines to increase the capacity up to 165MW.
Goldwind USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd., secured USD$300 million of wind project financing from International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank for the 215-MW Penonome Wind Project. The project will utilize 86 Goldwind 2.5MW permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) wind turbines and is expected to reach commercial operation in 2015.
Panama decided to invest more in renewables, solar PV and wind included, in line with its 2008-2023 National Energy Plan.