Eólico Las Peñas is a Chilean wind farm located 12 km to the west of the city of Arauco, in the middle of an eminently forest sector. The onshore wind farm has 4 wind turbines of 2.1 MW each. Eólico Las Peñas has had a significant impact on the emissions of energy consumption of the communities living around the area (the city of Arauco, Caletas de Tubul, Punta Lavapiés, Llico and Las Peñas, and the indigenous communities of Raqui Chico, Nine, Loma Larga and Pichillanes). The plant generates annually the equivalent of energy consumption of these cities, replacing the energy generated from coal with clean and renewable energy.
Since its first year of operation, in 2017, Las Peñas has set the standard with plant factors of 43.4%, 41.7% and 44.4% in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively, being the first and only wind farm in Chile’s integrated electric grid to exceed the 40% threshold. By 2020, production is expected to exceed 33 GWh.
Las Peñas wind farm is a partnership between Cristalerías Chile, Chile’s leader in the manufacture of glass containers, and Parque Eólico Las Peñas, the startup company that developed the green field research project.