Energy Sector Facing Winds of Change Patrick Ferguson - The News
go to original March 12, 2012

La Ventosa wind energy project - Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Three more wind energy parks are up and running on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, making Mexico home to the largest wind farm in Latin America.

The new wind parks, with of 204 turbines, can produce 306 megawatts (MW) annually and power thousands of homes. Total production from the wind farm on the Isthmus amounts to 1.1 billion kilowatts a year, or enough electricity to power 700,000 Mexican homes annually.

The advantages of providing Mexicans with clean energy are twofold for the country. The additional sources of clean energy will allow Mexico to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and its independence on oil exports.

Worldwide, Mexico ranks 13th in terms of greenhouse emissions and slightly under the world average of greenhouse emissions per person, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. With the additional of the three new parks, Oaxaca II, II, and IV, Mexico is expected to drop its CO2 emissions by 670 tons a year.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec boasts roughly 65 percent of the nation’s wind energy capacity. Winds blow over the stretch of land at 8.5 meters per second making it optimal for wind-energy production.

In March 2010, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) awarded the tender to build the three parks to Acciona, a Spanish company. The parks were operational in December of last year and inaugurated last week. “We believe that renewable energy is an excellent option for Mexico. This country has great energy resources based on clean and renewable sources, such as the wind and the sun, and it can make use of them to create an attractive energy system with fewer emissions that can create wealth, added value, and jobs in the country,” said José Manuel Entrecanales, the president of Acciona.

Although Mexico’s largest source of income by oil exports, experts say that Mexico’s oil production potential is dropping.

Last month, Mexico’s Energy Secretariat annouced that oil production will likely be stagnant for the next 14 years unless the Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) substantially boosts investment.

But with added investment or not, Mexico’s oil sector will almost certainly play a major part in the country’s economy for years to come.

“At the end of the day Latin American countries will be hard pressed to keep the industry’s (wind energy) growth up to its potential without a global price on carbon and other measures to account for the real costs to society of conventional power generation” said Steve Sawyer, the Global Wind Energy Council secretary general, upon releasing the organization’s 2011 report last month.

While investment in oil production has lagged in the last decade, investment in wind energy has not. In 2004, the country produced about 2 MW of electricity from wind farms. In 2011, the country produced 873 MW. And production doesn’t seem to be slowing.

Last week, President Felipe Calderón announced the construction of two more wind parks on the Isthmus, which will produce 600 MW annually. This project is larger than all the wind energy parks built in 2010 in the country.

By the end of 2014, Mexico is expected to produce about 2,500 MW annually from wind energy.

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!