Dunas do Paracuru Wind Power Plant

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Consorcio Dunas de Paracuru, owned by the Brazilian company Ventos Brasil Comercio e Representacoes Ltda (60%) and the Spanish company Inversiones Teneria Empreeendimentos do Brasil Ltda (40%), was granted the authorization to build a wind power plant located in the state of Ceara (42 MW in capacity, municipality of Paracuru). The 35-year contract was signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL in July 2010. The sponsors created the special purpose company Consorcio Dunas de Paracuru to manage the project, which was named EOL Dunas do Paracuru. In September 2012, Ventos Brasil acquired full ownership control over the project. The total investment in the project was estimated at US$ 92 million (BRL 181.64 million). The government periodically runs public bidding for the sale of energy to the country´s distribution companies. The power plant controlled by Dunas de Paracuru won the public bidding that took place in December 2009, by offering an average tariff of US$ 75.9/MWh (BRL 150/MWh), which would be annually adjusted to inflation. The project company signed 20-year power purchase agreements with several electricity distribution companies, and committed to start supplying to the market in July 2012. As for October 2012, the power plant received the authorization from ANEEL to commence testing operations, and commercial operation was expected to begin in the second semester 2013. The company was granted the right to take part in the government program called Regime Especial de Incentivos para o Desenvolvimento da Infra-Estrutura (Reidi). Companies selected to take part in this program were given tax cuts in the acquisition of capital equipment and construction material acquired both in the domestic and international markets (this incentive represented a cost reduction of about 9.25%). In addition, the company was allowed to use accelerated depreciation methods of accounting for construction expenditures. Finally, the electricity sold by the company is not subject to sectoral taxes. In 2012, the company applied for carbon credits. Operations commenced in December 2012. In March 2013, the state-owned bank BNDES approved a US$ 16.8 million (BRL 39.5 million) to the project company.