Enel Begins Construction On Largest Solar Project In The Americas
April 17th, 2017 by Saurabh Mahapatra
Originally published on CleanTechies.
Enel Green Power Mexico has started construction on what will be the largest solar power park across the 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 the Americas as well as the largest owned by Enel globally.
The two projects — the 427 MW1 Villanueva 1 and the 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 of electricity would be generated from the park every year, which is enough to meet the power consumption of more than 1.3 million households. The projects will 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, the 238-megawatt Don José, in the auction. Construction on this project has also begun. Don José will generate 539 GWh of electricity every year, enough to meet the power demands of 410,000 households and offset more than 245,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Enel already operates 728 megawatts of capacity in Mexico — 675 megawatts of wind and 53 megawatts of hydro power capacity. Apart from the 992 megawatts of solar power capacity under construction through the 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.
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