Brazil to build Latin America's largest wind-power park

Brazil's state-run National Development Bank said Wednesday that it had signed a financing contract for the construction of the largest wind-power park in Latin America.

The Brazilian bank will provide 205 million US dollars, or 69 percent of the total investment, for building a complex with a production capacity of 150 megawatts.

The contract was signed during a ceremony in the southern city of Sao Paulo in the presence of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said the bank.

The park, located in the city of Osorio, the southwestern state of Rio Grande do Sul, will be built by Vientos del Sur Energia, a joint venture formed by the Spanish firm Enervento, Germany's Enercon and CIP Brazil.

Being the largest of its kind in Latin America and the second in the world, the wind-power park will represent an effort to diversify energy sources in Brazil and is expected to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

The construction of the park is also expected to create more than 500 jobs in Latin America's largest country, which has been plagued by unemployment in recent years.

Brazil generates 28.6 megawatts of wind energy, which accounts for 0.03 percent of the country's total electricity production.

Source: Xinhua