Vancouver’s Clir Renewables has signed an agreement with Cubico Sustainable Investments to onboard five of Cubico’s wind projects in Latin America, optimizing more than 500 Megawatts.
Cubico is a leading investor in global renewable energy infrastructure.
Founded in 2017, Clir is dedicated to maximizing project returns from renewable energy assets. Earlier this year Clir raised $27 million to further develop ‘smart’ products, utilizing industry-wide data to evaluate technical and financial risk with more accuracy, enabling improved contractual and financing terms for owners and investors.
The Latin American markets for renewable energy have seen significant growth over the past five years, with several countries pledging 70% renewable energy use by 2030.
While hydro power currently dominates Uruguay and Brazil’s energy mix, wind and solar projects are being developed to take advantage of strong resources and bolster the grid during periods of low rainfall.
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However, developers and asset owners in this region face many challenges when assessing the performance of their projects, from grid integration to the enormous scale and variation of data from disparate projects.
Following a 3-month trial period, Cubico has secured Clir to monitor, optimize, and report on performance for three projects in Brazil and two in Uruguay. Clir will assess performance on a per turbine and project basis, and then benchmark this data across the wider portfolio to support optimal asset operation.
By using machine learning to analyze multiple data streams, including near real-time and historical SCADA data from the turbine and grid, geospatial, and weather records, Clir is able to pinpoint whether underperformance is due to low resource, environmental interference, or fixable technical errors.
This insight can then be used to inform operations, model future revenue, and identify opportunities to negotiate existing terms on debt financing, or insurance, based on forecasts backed up by real project data.
Photo by Appolinary Kalashnikova on Unsplash
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