Solvay and Albanesi to Invest $135 Million for Argentine Thermal Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Solvay Indupa (Buenos Aires, Argentina), a company of the Solvay Group (Brussels, Belgium), formed a joint venture with Argentina’s energy group Albanesi S.A. for the construction of a 165-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle power plant. The investment is estimated at $135 million. The plant will be constructed at Solvay Indupa's plant in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

The plant would produce 50 MW for self consumption and the remaining 90 MW will be provided to the SIN, Argentina’s National Interconnected System, under the National Energy Plus Regime, developed to encourage local investors, offering unregulated tariffs for new projects that would boost capacity.

The 165 MW plant will be built in two phases. The simple-cycle will produce 120 MW and it will be completed by January 2009 while the combined-cycle completion date hasn’t been determined yet. According to the company’s press release, the generators machines will be purchased from Pratt & Whitney.

Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General Manager of Solvay’s Plastics Sector, said that in regards to their geographical expansion, “Solvay Latin American markets are among the most promising targets”. Solvay group is one of the world's leading vinyls producer while Solvay Indupa is one of the most important petrochemical companies in the Mercosur. Its main products are PVC resins and Caustic Soda.

Albanesi is one of the major Argentine energy traders, which owns the Modesto Maranzana Generating Power Plant (Cordoba, Argentina). The plant is equipped with four General Electric turbines, producing a total output of 70 Mw. Recently, the company purchased other two natural gas turbines from Pratt & Whitney Power Systems (Connecticut, USA), to be installed at the mentioned Thermal Plant. View related October 5, 2007 news article - Argentina’s Generación Mediterránea Purchases Two Pratt & Whitney Gas Turbines.

The project will provide competitive coverage of the site's entire energy needs. In the energetic crisis context, many Argentine big industries are developing their own cogeneration plants in order to guarantee the operation of their plants. Some of them are Molinos, General Motors, Dreyfus and Cargill.

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