The Public Enterprises of the Colombian city of Medellín have opened bidding to build the country's first wind energy park in La Guajira, near the Caribbean coast. The project, named Jepírachi ('winds of the northeast' in the indigenous Wayuu language), is to cost 21 million dollars and be up and running by the end of 2003, with output of 20 megawatts.

It is an experimental plan, the first of several being developed in Colombia, that could foment economic development in La Guajira, a desert area.

The international call is for suppliers of the wind-propelled electrical turbines and an energy substation for the park.