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In the News from Panama

Panama’s Future May Be Blowin’ in the Wind

A unit of the World Bank is reportedly set to provide $300 million in financing to help a company create the largest wind farm in Central America in the hills west of Panama City.

The ambitious project would feature 86 wind turbines, enough to generate 448 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, which is 5 percent of the country’s total annual power usage, according to International Finance Corp., the company backing the financing.

For a developing country, the creation of a diverse and reliable energy infrastructure is essential. And this announcement illustrates that international investment is helping Panama develop a modern network that will draw on different resources.

This level of infrastructure is essential to any evolving economy. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this type of news is important to the Panama City real estate business. They show that Panama is moving into the future and creating an environment for continued growth.

Wind power is a natural for blustery Panama, which needs and modern technologies to keep pace with the country’s economic growth. The wind farm will also save about 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, “which is the equivalent of taking 84,000 cars off the road,” the IFC says.

“The project is aligned with IFC’s strategy to support initiatives that help Central American countries transition to a cleaner and more efficient energy matrix,” Gabriel Goldschmidt, IFC head for infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a Tuesday statement.

The first phase of the project began operating last December, generating a capacity of 55 megawatts of electricity, Reuters reports.

Duncan McGowan is president of Punta Pacifica Realty, a Panama real estate agency focused on Punta Pacifica, the exclusive neighborhood of 18 towers perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

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