ACCIONA builds the first renewable project in Mexico following electric power auctions

ACCIONA Energía has started construction work on the fifth wind farm under its ownership in Mexico: El Cortijo, a 168-megawatt (MW) facility located in the State of Tamaulipas, which will represent an investment of 221 million dollars (210 million euros at current exchange). It is the first renewable energy project resulting from the electric power auctions organized in Mexico within the framework of the country’s Energy Reform.

ACCIONA won the first tender a total of 585.5 GWh of electric power and the corresponding clean energy certificates, which will be supplied by this wind farm.

El Cortijo, located 40 kilometers south of Reynosa, will have fifty-six AW 125/3000 turbines of Nordex/ACCIONA Windpower technology, each one with rated power of 3 MW, a rotor diameter of 125 meters and a 120-meter-high concrete tower. 

The installation is expected to enter service in August 2018 and will generate the equivalent of the electricity consumption of around 350,000 Mexican homes, avoiding the emission of over 366,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere per year.

“Completing the renewables projects that are awarded to us in the shortest possible timescale, and with the quality guarantees required, are ongoing challenges for ACCIONA. We are convinced that the development of the El Cortijo wind farm will allow us to ratify this commitment, through which we set out to contribute to the development of renewable energy sources in México and the rest of the world”, explains ACCIONA Energía México Director Miguel Angel Alonso.

The construction and operation of El Cortijo and its associated activities will represent a contribution to Mexico’s GDP of around 232 million US dollars during its working life, according to figures from the socioeconomic impact study made for the company by the consultancy EY and presented last May.

Next project

In the next few months ACCIONA will begin construction work on the 339-MWp Puerto Libertad photovoltaic complex in Sonora. A part of it is related to the second wholesale electricity market auction held last September in which the company was awarded 478.3 GWh, and the rest corresponds to the PPA signed with a subsidiary of the Tuto Energy Group, a partner of ACCIONA in this solar project.

With this plant, which is expected to be completed in the second semester of 2018, ACCIONA Energía will reach 1,063 MW of total installed capacity under its ownership in Mexico – 68% in wind power and 32% in photovoltaic – and will produce electricity of renewable origin equivalent to the consumption of almost 2 million Mexican homes.

Mexico is a strategic market for ACCIONA Energía, due to its considerable renewable resources and strong growth prospects. The ACCIONA Group is also present in the country in the fields of water treatment, the construction of infrastructures, services and real estate development.

*3-MW wind turbines installed by ACCIONA in a wind farm in Mexico.