The company will invest $650m in the plant, which is considered to be the largest photovoltaic (PV) facility under construction in the Americas. Enel plans to finance the project through its own sources.
The Villanueva solar plant will consist of 427 MW Villanueva 1 and the 327 MW Villanueva 3 parks. These two parks will be constructed simultaneously.
EGPM subsidiaries' Villanueva Solar and Parque Solar Villanueva Tres own the Villanueva solar plant.
The solar plant is expected to start operations in second half of 2018 and generate about 1700GWh of electricity each year. The energy output is equivalent to consumption needs of more than 1.3 million Mexican households, while offsetting carbon emissions of about 780,000 tonnes into the atmosphere.
Enel Renewable Energies Central America head Paolo Romanacci said "The start of construction of this record-breaking plant is another major milestone for Enel.
“We continue to make excellent progress against our strategy in this high-potential market. Mexico is a key country for Enel and we look forward to contributing further to the country’s growing electricity sector with the clean energy generated by Villanueva and the 530 MW of solar and wind projects we have under execution.
“Enel is an important actor in Mexico’s sustainable development, and it is clear that our approach of creating shared value for all our stakeholders around the world is working very well in Mexico.”
Recently, Enel also began the construction of a 200MW wind farm in the Mexican state of Coahuila. The wind farm is expected to generate about 750GWh of electricity per year. The wind farm is being supported by a 20 year power purchase agreement. Estimated cost for the construction of wind farm is about $300m.
Image: Enel starts building 754MW solar plant in Mexico. Photo: Courtesy of start08/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
