ACCIONA Energía strengthens its presence in Mexico with an award of 168 MW of wind power capacity in the first power auction

ACCIONA Energía has been awarded the supply of 585.7  gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity in the first long-term power auction  in the wholesale electric power market organized by the National Energy Control  Center (CENACE) of Mexico. This will be materialized in a 168 megawatt (MW)  wind farm in the State of Tamaulipas that will enter service in 2018.

ACCIONA Energía currently owns  and operates 556.5 MW in Mexico, with four wind farms in Oaxaca that account  for around 20% of the operational wind power capacity in the country, and has  built another 303 MW for customers. The result of the latest auction  strengthens the company’s presence in Mexico as one of the main players in the  renewables market there.

The El Cortijo wind power  project, whose production was awarded together with the corresponding Clean  Energy Certificates (CEL), will be located 40 kilometers south of the city of Reynosa.  It will consist of fifty-six 3 MW ACCIONA Windpower turbines that will generate  electricity equivalent to the consumption of around 350,000 homes in the area, avoiding  the emission of more than 563,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from conventional  coal-fired power stations.

Construction work is  planned to start in 2017, with the wind farm coming on stream by mid-2018. The  energy produced will be supplied to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) under  a long-term contract (15 years).

“ACCIONA has once again demonstrated that its energy solutions are not  just environmentally sustainable but also very competitive by winning a major  contract in the first energy auction organized in Mexico. The competition was  strong and this will enable us to consolidate our leadership in the Mexican  wind power sector,” ACCIONA Energía CEO Rafael Mateo stated recently.

More than 200 bids from 69 tenderers

This first auction, in which 227 bids were received from 69 tenderers,  awarded a total of 5,385.72 GWh to 11 bids from 7 tenderers. It is part of an  initiative by the Mexican authorities to integrate renewable energies into the  country’s electric power system following an Energy Reform in 2013. Between  2015 and 2018 the Mexican government plans to incorporate 6 GW of renewable  origin with an estimated investment of 14 billion US dollars, and the  Government’s commitment is to generate around 35% of the nation’s electricity  consumption from renewables by 2024, with a forecast 12 GW from wind power and  3 GW from photovoltaic energy.

As well as the new projects awarded, ACCIONA Energía works on  developments for itself and its customers in Mexico, totaling several hundred  additional MW. Last year the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)  with the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to promote the  development of joint projects for the generation of electricity from renewable  sources in the country.