Panama will have wind farm

PANAMA. The unstable market of oil production has made the world look for fuel alternatives and Panama is joining the trend.

Fersa Energias Renovables SA, the Spanish renewable-energy developer that operates on three continents, won authorization to build Panama’s first wind farm.

The Barcelona-based company got approval to develop the 225-megawatt Toabre wind park and connect it to Panama’s national power grid, Chief Executive Officer Jose Maria Roger said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Fersa is boosting its presence abroad, where it benefits from government incentives to develop renewable energy as nations seek to cut reliance on fossil fuels and curb output of greenhouse gases. By contrast, Spain is planning to cap wind installations under a renewable plan for 2010 to 2020, according to El Economista.

“The financing of the Toabre project should be concluded by early October and we should start building by the end of this year,” Roger said.

Fersa has a plan to double sales through 2010 as it increases wind-energy production in Asia and the U.S. The company aims to build 100 megawatts of wind farms in India in the next two years and has permission for 50 megawatts in China, where it’s awaiting approval for a further 150 megawatts. The cost of setting up a wind park in China is 20 percent cheaper than in Europe or the U.S., according to Roger’s estimates. Wind-energy companies are still waiting for details of a stimulus package to promote renewables in the U.S., where Fersa is in discussions to start a joint venture, Roger said. “Even if it is the beginning of 2010, that will be okay,” he said.

Fersa, due to report second-quarter earnings in August, will post a profit even as clients delay orders amid the financial crisis, Roger said.

“The delays are not cancellations, and we are managing to get equipment cheaper,” said Roger, who was formerly head of the Spanish unit of Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines.

Fersa, which will implement the Toabre project through its 92 percent-owned Panamanian subsidiary, Enrilews SA, has provisional authorization for a further wind park in Panama, a 246-megawatt development called Anton.

Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources.