Project Summary
300MW Yguazu Project, our second in Paraguay, is on track to a world-scale green fertiliser project intended to supply the region’s vast agricultural and fertiliser markets with low-carbon products and fertiliser alternatives.
- 300MW Yguazu Project over twice the size of Villeta
- 300MW of renewable baseload power reserved with ANDE, the national power company of Paraguay
- Pre-PPA and technical studies now complete
- Formal Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to be agreed
- The project will benefit from the Villeta development blueprint and ATOME’s in-country reputation
- Supply of green fertiliser and low-carbon productions to the region and globally
Why Paraguay?
Optimal locations to develop green fertiliser first and foremost require ample availability of low-cost renewable power. Other key considerations include proximity and ease of access to the end-use market, water, land, logistics and local environment. Paraguay ticks all the boxes.
Critically, Paraguay is home to the 14GW Itaipu dam (co-owned with Brazil) which stands as the world’s second largest hydroelectric dam, providing Paraguay with over 90% of its energy needs. In fact, it produces so much that Paraguay only uses 30% of its 50% share of Itaipu’s power generation. With this surplus, Paraguay has become the world’s largest exporter of renewable energy, having sent US$1.3 billion worth of electricity to Brazil in 2020. Even then, plentiful renewable power remains in Paraguay meaning the country has an abundance of renewable electricity providing the potential for some of the cheapest production of green fertiliser in the world.
In parallel, Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) is one of the bread baskets of the world. Food products from this region line the shelves of supermarkets in the UK and Europe, from Argentinian beef to Brazilian coffee and Paraguayan sugarcane. Paraguay itself is the world’s largest exporter of organic sugar, third-largest soy exporter, and eighth-largest beef exporter.
Of course, significant volumes of fertiliser are needed to maintain crop yields and grow these products. However, Mercosur has very limited domestic production. It imports approximately 30 million tonnes per year of fertiliser (95% of its demand), making it the world’s largest nitrogen fertiliser import markets.
Considering this, Paraguay is a prime location to develop a world-class decentralised production facility in a market where fertiliser is most needed with the ability to compete with and displace volatile, costly, and dirty fertiliser imports.
Paraguay itself one of the region’s most stable and fastest growing economies. Moody’s Rating, the international rating agency, updated Paraguay to investment grade in July and specifically highlighted green fertiliser as a positive material contributor to the future economy. Paraguay is a stable export-oriented economy with one of the fastest GDP growth rates in the region (4.1% in 2021). Tariffs are low (10% Corporate and Personal Tax Rate) and obstacles to business and trade are minimal in comparison to other countries in the region.
