Enel Green Power Mexico has started construction on what will be the largest solar power park across Americas.
Through a recently issued press release, Italy-based Enel Green Power announced that its Mexican subsidiary has started construction of two projects with combined capacity of 754 megawatts. These two projects will form the Villanueva solar power park which will be the largest project in Americas as well as the largest owned by Enel globally.
The two projects – 427 MW1 Villanueva 1 and 327 MW1 Villanueva 3 – will also surpass in size the largest projects in Brazil and Chile. The solar power park is expected to begin generation in H2 2018. An estimated 1,700 GWh electricity would be generated from the park every year enough to meet power consumption of over 1.3 million households. The projects shall also offset more than 780,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Enel Green Power will invest $650 million on these projects.
Enel had secured the rights to develop these two projects in the first-ever renewable energy tender announced by Mexico in March 2016. The company entered contracts to supply clean energy for a 15-year period and clean energy certificates for a period of 20 years.
The company was also awarded another solar power project – 238 megawatts – Don José in the auction. Construction in this project has also begun. Don José will generate 539 GWh electricity every year, enough to meet power demand of 410,000 households and offset more than 245,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Enel already operates 728 megawatts capacity in Mexico – 675 megawatts of wind and 53 megawatts of hydro power capacity. Apart from the 992 megawatts solar power capacity under construction through Villanueva solar power park and Don José project, the company is also building 293 megawatts of wind energy projects. Thus, once all under-construction projects are commissioned Enel’s Mexico capacity would balloon to over 2,000 megawatts.
