Above: the new Finca de Viento Santa Isabel wind farm

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Puerto Rico’s new Finca de Viento Santa Isabel wind project has begun operations and is now producing clean energy.

The Pattern Energy project, which was officially launched by Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno this week, will produce up to 95 megawatts of renewable energy — 20 megawatts more than it was initially slated to produce.

The project will be producing enough energy to power the equivalent of 30,000 homes, according to the governor, “contributing to the production of cleaner, safer and cheaper energy for everyone in Puerto Rico.”

Fortuno’s administration has set forth a plan of generating 12 percent of Puerto Rico’s energy from green sources by 2015, 15 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2035.

“This is a major milestone for renewable energy production in Puerto Rico, an outstanding achievement five years in the making and one that we are very proud to have accomplished in close collaboration with our local partners, with the help of the good people of Santa Isabel and the full support of Governor Luis Fortuno,” said Hunter Armistead, executive director of Pattern Energy.

It is the latest green energy project on the island, following a solar project recently inaugurated in Guayama. Another wind farm, by Gestamp, is also slated to open in Punta Lima, Naguabo.

Fortuno said the Finca de Viento project had brought $250 million in private investment into the island’s economy, along with providing jobs for 350 Puerto Ricans.

The project includes 44 Siemens turbines. Pattern has entered into a 20-year power purchase and operating agreement with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.