Puerto Rico to host biggest solar park in LatAm

San Juan, Jul 30 (EFE).- A Puerto Rican company plans to invest $35 million to build the largest solar-energy park in Latin America, a 20,000-panel installation with 4.5 MW of capacity.

The president of Windmar Renewable Energy, Victor Gonzalez Barahona, told Efe Friday that 13,000 of the panels have already been installed and that the solar park will be completed by the end of 2010.

The executive said the project - located in the Cerrillos area of the southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico's second largest - will obviate the need to import 20,000 barrels of oil annually and thereby reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 6,000 tons.

The initiative will generate 9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to meet the consumption needs of 1,500 families for a year, and also will create 70 new direct jobs at a time when Puerto Rico's unemployment rate stands at roughly 17 percent.

Gonzalez Barahona said the electricity will be sold to state-owned utility AEE or to companies and consumers that participate in programs to encourage the use of alternative sources of energy.

Imported fossil fuels are used to produce 98 percent of the electricity consumed in Puerto Rico, with oil-based power accounting for 70 percent of the total.

Puerto Rico's renewable energy industry is in an incipient stage, according to the company, which says the Ponce project is an opportunity to lessen the island's dependence on hydrocarbons while also reducing air pollution.

Windmar Renewable Energy also is implementing other smaller-scale projects in Puerto Rico: the 250,000-watt San Antonio Maritime, the 249,000-watt Martex Farms, the 50,000-watt Estancia Santa Rosa and 50,000-watt Hacienda San Blas projects, among others.

Founded in 2001, the company has 21 photovoltaic installations in operation in Puerto Rico that generate more than 2.6 million kilowatt-hours annually.

As part of its commitment to boosting the use of alternative forms of electricity on the island, Puerto Rico expects to receive more than $120 million in U.S. federal funds - available under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - for implementing renewable-energy projects over the next several years.

Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Jose Perez-Riera announced recently that those projects will lead to the creation of more than 2,000 "green jobs" on the U.S. commonwealth.