wiredInUSA December 2019

New scheme gets underway

Modular installation completed

Image: Hellenic Cables

The wind and solar development company Mainstream Renewable Power has reached financial close for the first phase of its wholly owned and fully contracted 1.3GW Andes Renovables wind and solar power generation platform in Chile. The company has raised $580 million in debt to fund the construction of phase one. Finance has been provided by a consortium of six banks, and is one of the largest renewable energy debt financing deals undertaken in the region during 2019. Cóndor, the 571MW first phase of Andes Renovables, comprises one solar PV and three wind generation assets. Construction has begun, and the facility is scheduled to reach commercial operation in 2021. The next two phases, Huemul and Copihue, with a combined capacity of around 730MW, are expected to reach financial close in the coming months. The new wind farms will be built by Sacyr Industrial and Elecnor, with Vestas, Nordex Acciona and Siemens Gamesa supplying the wind turbines. Sterling and Wilson were selected to build the Río Escondido solar farm, while grid connection works will be carried out by Transelec, CGE, HMV and Siemens. Main power transformers for the projects will be supplied by ABB.

Hellenic Cables has completed work on Elia’s new modular offshore grid (MOG). The project was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by King Philippe of Belgium. The platform, located 40km off the coast, is linked to the mainland through two 220kV submarine cables provided by Hellenic Cables. In total, 91km of 220kV submarine cables were designed, manufactured and tested at Hellenic Cables’ manufacturing plant in Corinth, Greece. Hellenic Cables also provided the sea joints, transition joints between submarine and land cables, cabling and terminations on the MOG platform, as well as on-site assembly works, acceptance testing and commissioning. Mr Alexios Alexiou, Hellenic Cables’ general manager, said: “The MOG project marks our first, and very successful, collaboration with the Belgian TSO, Elia. As a company partly headquartered in Belgium through our parent company Cenergy Holdings SA, we are proud to contribute to the country’s environmental and sustainability targets with a project that helps harness Belgium’s enormous offshore wind potential.” Hellenic Cables is currently expanding production capacity of inter-array cables at the Corinth plant.

wiredInUSA December 2019

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