SunPower and Canadian Solar win projects in Mexico's First Electricity Auction

SunPower Corp. has recently announced that, under Mexico's first electricity power auction, the company has been awarded power purchase agreements with CFE, Mexico's state-owned electric utility, to deliver one terawatt-hour of energy, equivalent to approximately 500 MW, over the term of the agreements.

SunPower's awards from the auction include almost 400 MW in Yucatan and more than 100 MW in Guanajuato, and their associated clean energy certificates. Based on the auction results released by Mexico's National Center for Energy Control, or CENACE, SunPower won approximately 20 percent of the total energy, and 25 percent of the solar energy, awarded from the energy auction. Project development and construction is contingent on factors including contract execution.

Tom Werner, SunPower President and CEO, said:

"With more than seven gigawatts of solar power systems around the world using our high performance technology, SunPower has the experience and expertise to deliver reliable, cost-competitive solar power to serve Mexico's growing energy demand,SunPower is proud to have this opportunity to partner with CFE to accelerate Mexico's transition to a robust clean energy economy."

SunPower has operated in Mexico since 2011, and has a manufacturing facility in Mexicali that produces more than one gigawatt of high efficiency SunPower solar panels annually. 

Fox example in December, SunPower announced another long term power purchase agreement under which the company would provide 36 MW of solar power to Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), a privatized airport group in Mexico and operator of Cancun Airport and eight other airports in southeast Mexico. SunPower expects to start construction this year and, once the project is operational, the company will provide operations and maintenance services, including monitoring power plant production.