Bacardi Unveils Puerto Rico Wind Units for Rum Distillery

Drink maker Bacardi has unveiled the largest wind turbine installation in Puerto Rico to harness natural wind energy to power its rum distillery near San Juan.

.The two 250kW wind turbine units are 137ft high and with a rotor diameter of 75ft.

The units are owned by Aspenall Energies that will sell electricity generated at the units to Bacardi under a power purchase agreement.

The turbines are expected to generate about 1,000,000kW/h of electricity per year accounting for 3% to 7% of the power used by Bacardi, roughly the consumption of the facilities tourism-related activities at its Casa Bacardi Visitor Center.

The units are an expected to reduce carbon emissions by over 900t of CO2 a year.

The project is the first step in utilising wind power as a renewable energy source for Bacardi and the firm intends to add further wind solutions and other energy saving initiatives.