Argentina

In order to promote wind energy and solar power, the Argentinian Government implemented the Regimen Nacional de Energía Eolica y Solar Law at the end of 1999.

The most important aspects of the legislation are to establish a mechanism to transfer resources towards the development of the renewable energy technologies, to guarantee a price for electricity fed into the grid (for grid-connected applications) or used for public service (for stand-alone applications) and to provide tax relief on capital investment for generating equipment utilising either wind or solar power.

In addition to 4 small wind plants totalling 3 MW, the country’s currently installed capacity of 14 MW includes 11 MW installed at Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut Province) on the Atlantic coast of Patagonia; during the second half of 2001, another 10.6 MW capacity will be brought into service at this location.

Further projects are planned to take advantage of the extremely high average wind speeds along the coast: 50 MW at Comodoro Rivadavia and 10 MW at Puerto Madryn (also Chubut Province) in 2002, 117 MW at Bahia Blanca (Buenos Aires Province) in 2003.

An official study has forecast that there could be up to 1 GW of wind power installations in the country by 2015. However, the Argentinian Wind Energy Association has claimed that more than 2 GW could be accommodated before 2012.

COUNTRY NOTES (WIND ENERGY)

Argentina || Canada || China || Denmark || Germany || Greece || India || Ireland || Italy || Japan || Netherlands || Spain || Sweden || United Kingdom || United States Of America