A wind turbine in action. Image courtesy of Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Danish wind-turbine giant Vestas has won the contract to build Latin America’s largest-ever wind farm in the State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The clean electricity generated at the wind farm will be used to power up part of the operations of such giants as Coca-Cola and Heineken in the region.
Vestas received a 396MW order for the project. The order has been placed by Mareña Renovables, which is owned by a consortium that comprises Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund, Mitsubishi Corporation, and PGGM, a Dutch pension fund service provider.
When built, the wind farm is expected to be the largest wind-energy project in Latin America, according to Mareña Renovables.
The wind farm itself will be located in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the southeastern region of the State of Oaxaca. Delivery of the turbines is set to start in the second quarter of 2012, Vestas has confirmed in a statement.
As part of the turnkey contract, Vestas will provide the entire range of services to build the wind farm, including civil and electrical works, supply, installation and commissioning of the wind turbines.
Juan Araluce, chief sales officer at Vestas Wind Systems A/S, said it is an important milestone for Vestas, as the company looks to strengthen its position in Latin America and globally.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec lies between the Gulf of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico to the north, and the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific Ocean to the south
The project’s power generation will be bought by Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, an operating company of global brewer Heineken N.V. and subsidiaries of Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA) under 20-year power purchase agreements. FEMSA controls Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the region, and OXXO, the Mexican convenience store chain.
Adrian Katzew Corenstein, vice-president of Vestas Mexico and Caribbean, said the order was the result of several months of close collaboration between Mareña Renovables and Vestas.
Mexico’s clean-energy goals
Mexico itself has a non-binding unilateral goal to reduce carbon emissions to 50pc of the estimated emission levels in 2002 by 2050. Back in 2010, the Congress in Mexico approved the National Energy Strategy to establish a goal to reduce the share of power generated from fossil fuels to 65pc by 2024, to 60pc by 2030 and 50pc by 2050.
