The Mexican government has updated the results of its first electricity auction, increasing the number of winning developers and how much capacity will be purchased. Solar still accounts for the vast majority of selected projects.
Earlier this week, the government announced that seven developers were awarded 15-year contracts to provide 1.72 GW of renewable power to state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad. It was the country’s first long-term public electricity tender since its comprehensive energy reform and aimed to help Mexico meet its 35% by 2024 clean energy goal.
According to a Bloomberg report, the Mexican government had to re-evaluate the auction and redo it because there was a flawed proposal from a wind developer. Now, 11 developers have been selected to provide approximately 2.08 GW through 18 projects. Bloomberg says solar accounts for almost 1.7 GW of the total, up from 1.1 GW in the previously announced results, with wind power projects providing 394 MW, down from 620 MW.
As previously reported, Enel Green Power’s (EGP) Mexican subsidiary is, by far, the biggest winner and has been granted the right to provide a total capacity of around 1 GW from three solar PV projects. The developer says it will be investing about $1 billion in the construction of the new facilities.
Separately, SunPower Corp. has announced it won contracts under the auction to deliver 1 TWh of energy, equivalent to approximately 500 MW, over the term of the agreements. That includes almost 400 MW in Yucatan and more than 100 MW in Guanajuato.
