Enel Green Power wins nearly 1GW capacity in Mexican renewables auction

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Enel Green Power wins nearly 1GW capacity in Mexican renewables auction

Enel Green Power (EGP), acting through its subsidiary Enel Green Power México, has been awarded the right to sign contracts for 15-year energy supply and 20-year clean certificate supply with three PV solar projects for a total capacity of around 1 GW in Mexico in the country’s first long-term public tender since its energy reform.

EGP will be investing approximately 1 billion US dollars in the construction of the new facilities, in line with the investments outlined in the company’s current strategic plan. Each of the three projects will be supported by a contract providing for the sale to Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad in Spanish or CFE) of both specified volumes of energy over a 15-year period and the related clean certificates over a 20-year period.

The projects are expected to enter into operation in 2018 and will generate more than 2 TWh of green energy per year, making a significant contribution to both Mexico’s need for new power generation and the country’s environmental goals.

Villanueva and Villanueva 3 will be built in the State of Coahuila, in the north of Mexico, and will have a combined installed capacity of 754 MW1. The 427 MW1 Villanueva plant is expected to generate about 973 GWh per year, avoiding the annual emission of over 441,700 tonnes of CO2. Villanueva 3 will have an installed capacity of 327 MW1 and is expected to produce about 738 GWh per year, while avoiding the annual emission of more than 335,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The 238 MW Don José PV solar project will be constructed in the State of Guanajuato, in north-central Mexico. The plant is expected to generate around 539 GWh per year, while avoiding the annual emission of more than 244,700 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

In Mexico, EGP currently has a total installed capacity of nearly 500 MW, of which 446 MW comes from wind and 53 MW from hydropower. The company also has two wind projects currently under construction, which are the 129 MW Palo Alto wind farm in the State of Jalisco and the 100 MW Vientos del Altiplano wind farm in the Zacatecas State.

ACCIONA Energía has also 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 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.

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).

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