A new wind farm that will be Mexico’s largest and one of the biggest in Latin America will be inaugurated Monday in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

The US $600-million Reynosa I project will have the capacity to produce 424 megawatts (MW) of energy annually and supply electricity to 900,000 people.

Located on the Charco Escondido ejido (community lands) to the south of the northern border city, the 8,000-hectare wind farm was built by the Spanish firm Acciona Energy for the Mexican company Zuma Energía and has 123 turbines, each reaching 120 meters into the sky.

It will prevent the emission of 739,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

The project is the result of Mexico’s second long-term energy auction, which was conducted by the Secretariat of Energy (Sener) and the National Energy Control Center (Cenace) in September 2016.

Zuma bid successfully for contracts to produce 725 MW of renewable energy.

The company will eventually operate four other wind farms: Reynosa II, III and IV at the same site and Reynosa V at a different location 14 kilometers away.

There are currently five wind farms in operation in Tamaulipas while another seven are being built.

The US $126-million El Porvenir wind farm, a project developed by Grupo Ecos in Reynosa, generates 156.4 MW of energy and a second construction phase will soon add a further 72 MW.

French company Engie operates a US $80-million wind farm in the municipality of Llera that generates 200.2 MW annually, while Mexican firm Gemex has two wind farms in Güémez, which generate power that is supplied to 311 Soriana supermarkets.

Among the projects under construction in the northern border state are a US $119-million project built by Engie that is expected to start operations in 2020 and a 100 MW wind farm built by Italian multinational Enel Green Power that is slated to enter into service in June 2019.

Source: El Financiero (sp)