Overview
The outcome of the project is a wind power plant that is located in Mexico, in the southern state of Oaxaca. The project’s purpose was renewable electricity generation to be supplied to the Interconnected Mexican National Grid (“IMNG”). The project’s installed capacity and estimated yearly average generation was 83.3 MW (“megawatts”) and 307,728 MWh (“megawatts hours”), respectively. The project was expected to displace 192,545 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (“tCO2e”) per year, which has accounted to 1,347,815 tCO2e for the first crediting period (7 years), generating the equivalent amount of greenhouse gasses emissions reductions (“ERs”). The project’s greenhouse gasses (“GHG”) emissions have been negligible, thus there has been no need to monitor leakage and it has not been taken into account when calculating ERs.
The project consisted of installation of 98 wind turbine-generators (WTG) each of 0.85 MW capacity, which has added to an 83.3 MW total capacity. The spatial extent of the project boundary is the IMNG. The project was connected to the IMNG through a 19 km-transmission line that connects to the Juchitán II substation of the IMNG, which belongs to the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (“CFE”). The total expected generated electricity has been dispatched to the grid and commercialized by CFE, which is the developer operator and owner of the project. The project has an expected minimum plant operating life of 21 years.
Benefits
The project contributes to sustainable development by:
- Assisting the IMNG to keep thermal plants shut down and use them only as stand-by power generation, when displacing expensive heavy fuel, diesel, coal and gas-fired generation thus reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by generating energy without GHG emissions.
- Employing local labor in construction and plant management.
- Contributing to Mexico’s fiscal accounts through the payment of taxes.
- Helping the country improves the hydrocarbons trade balance through reduction of oil imports to be used for electricity generation.
- Spurring Oaxaca State’s economy since it consumes materials of Oaxaca such as cement, metals, wood, and construction equipment, among others.
- Serving as a demonstration project for clean renewable electricity generation in the country, being the first large scale wind power plant in the country to be built and that will supply electricity to the grid.