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-MW wind farm in the State of Tamaulipas that will enter service in 2018.
This first auction, in which 227 bids were received from 69 tenderers, awarded an exact total of 5,385.72 GWh to 11 bids from seven 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 U.S. dollars. 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.
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 this 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’s production was awarded with the corresponding Clean Energy Certificates (CEL), and it will be located 40 kilometers south of the city of Reynosa. It will consist of 56 3-MW ACCIONA Windpower turbines and will save 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 15-year, long-term contract.
“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,” said ACCIONA Energía CEO Rafael Mateo. “The competition was strong and this will enable us to consolidate our leadership in the Mexican wind power sector.”
ACCIONA Energía
www.acciona.com
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