Spanish infrastructure development company Acciona has begun operations of its 183MW El Cortijo wind farm in Mexico.
Image: Acciona’s El Cortijo wind farm in Mexico. Photo: Courtesy of Acciona.
Construction of the wind farm began fifteen months ago and presently grid connections for each of the wind turbines are taking place. This process is expected to last for the next few weeks, until the full-fledged commercial operations at the wind farm begin.
The company has invested around $235m in the project. When completed, the wind farm will deliver 585.5GWh of clean energy annually, which will be sold under a long term electric power auction in Mexico, after energy reforms took place in the country.
Acciona claims to be the first company to have started working on wind farms in the country, after reforms in the energy sector had taken place.
The wind farm is located 40km south of Reynosa and includes 61 of Nordex’s (AW125/3000 model) 3MW, with a rotor diameter of 125m, mounted on 120m high concrete towers.
Clean electricity from the wind farm will be enough to be supplied to around 350,000 Mexican households, while avoiding more than 430,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. This is equivalent to photosynthesis of 21.5 million trees.
Acciona México CEO Miguel Angel Alonso said: “We are very pleased to have begun the commissioning of El Cortijo just fifteen months after starting the building work with an exemplary construction process.
“Acciona Energía always completes its projects on schedule, and we believe that this commitment to the projects awarded to it is a key factor in renewable energies developing as we all desire.”
This is the fifth wind farm owned by the company in Mexico, where it has installed a total of 740MW. It has also installed 303MW wind farms for third parties.
Besides this wind farm, the company is also developing 404MW solar portfolio in Sonora. A 229MWp portion of the power generated by the facility will be used to guarantee the supply of the 478.3 GWh awarded to the joint venture consisting of Acciona Energía and Tuto.