New Business in Nicaragua - Wind Farms

A year ago Nicaragua inaugurated its first wind farm, Amayo, in Rivas, with a capacity to generate 40 megawatts of electricity.
It currently supplies about 5% of Nicaragua’s electricity needs. When fully on-line it will supply 7-9%. The second phase of the Amayo wind park should be completed by mid-2010 with the addition of 11 wind turbines generating 2.1 megawatts each for an additional total of 23.

Three other wind energy projects are in various states of study and development. ALBANISA, the joint Nicaragua-Venezuela company, has received a license to determine the wind energy potential of an additional wind farm in Rivas with 40 windmills each producing 2 megawatts of electricity.

With Nicaragua’s domestic electricity demand of 300 megawatts already met (following severe shortages during the two years before the Ortega government came to power in 2007), new construction to increase electricity generation will likely await completion of SIEPAC, a project to connect the countries from Panama to Guatemala with transmission lines to form a regional grid. Studies have shown that Nicaragua has the potential to produce 800 megawatts of electricity from the wind.

It is estimated that electricity demand in the region will increase from the current 7,000 megawatts to 12,000-14,000 megawatts over the next 10 years. Nicaragua is seen as having the greatest potential in the region to produce electricity from wind.