Gestamp Serra de Santana Wind Farm

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Starting in April 2012, the Spanish company Gestamp Renewables was granted 35-year authorizations to build and operate five wind power plants known as Serra de Santana wind park in Rio Grande do Norte state. Serra de Santana Wind Park was planned with a total capacity of 125.4 MW split into five wind power plants, each managed by its own project company: Gestamp Eolica Serra de Santana S.A. (EOL Serra de Santana I, 19.8 MW); Gestamp Eolica Lagoa Nova S.A. (EOL Serra de Santana II, 28.8 MW); and Gestamp Eolica Serido S.A. (EOL Serra de Santana III, 28.8 MW); Gestamp Eolica Lanchinha S.A. (EOL Parque Eolico Lanchinha, 28 MW); Gestamp Eolica Paraiso S.A. (EOL Parque Eolico Pelado, 20 MW). Gestamp Renewables won the rights to sell electricity to the grid via a tenders carried out by Aneel, the electricity regulatory agency. In August 2010, three project companies signed 30-year contracts with the regulatory agency ANEEL to provide electricity to the grid at a rate of US$ 71/MWh (BRL 125/MWh). In 2011, two other signed power purchase contracts to sell electricity to distribution companies at a rate of US$ 62/MWh (BRL 101/MWh). The total investment in the five power plants was estimated at BRL 486.5 million or US$ 145.8 million. In November 2015, the state-owned bank BNDES approved a US$ 118.7 million (BRL 396 million) loan to the project. The remaining investment cost was set to be equity financed. The projects were 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, companies were allowed to use accelerated depreciation methods of accounting for construction expenditures. Finally, the electricity sold were not subject to sector taxes.