Mexico awards 1,720 MW of wind and solar projects through tender

Mexico has awarded several renewable power projects totalling 1,720 MW of power during the first ever private auction: seven wind and solar companies won 15-year contracts to develop the projects by 2018 and to sell power generation to the state-owned power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The medium price of PV projects fell to around US$40.5/MWh, lower than the median price of wind projects (US$43.9/MWh).

Enel Green Power, the renewable arm of Italian energy group Enel, 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 992 MW and worth US$1bn. Enel will build the 427 MW Villanueva and the 327 MW Villanueva 3 solar plants in the State of Coahuila, in northern Mexico, which should generate a total of 1.7 TWh/year. The 238 MW Don José PV solar project will be constructed in the State of Guanajuato, in north-central Mexico; it should generate around 539 GWh/year.

Four other solar projects have been awarded to SunPower, Alten Renewables, and Reccurent Energy (Canadian Solar).

Acciona Energy has been awarded 586 GWh of renewable electricity in the auction: the group will develop the El Cortijo project, a 168 MW wind park in the state of Tamaulipas by 2018.

Mexico aims to add 20 GW of renewable energy in the next 15 years.