Wind energy in Mexico: new wind farm with Gamesa’s wind turbines

The wind farm, which is in Oaxaca state, was built by Iberdrola’s engineering subsidiary and is fitted with 121 G52 Gamesa turbines
Iberdrola already has two other wind farms operating in Mexico: La Ventosa, with 80 MW, and Bii Nee Stipa, with26 MW

Iberdrola has commissioned La Venta III wind farm in Mexico. It has 102 megawatts of capacity and becomes the company’s third renewable energy facility in the country.

La Venta III is one of the largest wind power infrastructures in Latin American and is located in Santo Domingo de Ingenio, on the Tehuantepec isthmus (Oaxaca state), one of the windiest regions in the world.

The farm was developed by Iberdrola’s construction and engineering subsidiary and is fitted with 121 G52 Gamesa wind turbines, each 44 metres high and each with a capacity of 850 KW.

The company has guaranteed the long-term profitability of the facility, after signing an agreement to sell the electricity generated by the wind farm for the next 20 years with the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the Mexican state company that generates transports, distributes and sells electricity to 100 million inhabitants.

With the opening of La Venta III, Iberdrola has increased its wind capacity in Mexico to 208 MW, which means it can now supply renewable energy to more than 110,000 homes and prevents the emission of some 420,000 tonnes of CO2 a year into the atmosphere.

In this respect, the Group already has two other installations in operation in Mexico: the La Ventosa and Bii Nee Stipa wind farms, located in the municipalities of Juchitán de Zaragoza and Espinal respectively. The first has installed capacity of 80 MW and was the first wind farm in Mexico to be totally developed by a private company, whilst the second has 26 MW installed capacity.

All of the Iberdrola wind farms in Mexico (La Ventosa, La Venta III and Bii Nee Stipa) use Gamesa technology. The company is Iberdrola’s main worldwide supplier. Of the more than 14,500 MW of installed capacity that Iberdrola has, almost 9,000 MW is generated by Gamesa technology, in 14 different countries.

With renewable operations in 23 countries, Iberdrola is the world leader in its sector by both installed capacity (nearly 13,450 MW at the end of September 2011) and output (over 20,700 million kilowatts hours generated in the first nine months of last year).

www.iberdrola.es