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1 Mexico is betting on its more than substantial wind energy resources to take it to the next level in its ambitious plan to build a secure energy future. And it's doing its best to prove it with the recent opening of Latin America's largest wind park.
Acciona says its $600 million project will generate enough power for 700,000 Mexican homes, pushing out 306 MW of power with 204 turbines. The La Ventosa location is certainly a natural. One resident was quoted in the article as saying wind gusts can be strong enough to knock over buses and uproot trees. Of Mexico's 27 wind farms, 18 operate near the community.
And work on an even larger wind park is planned to get underway next year.
While the country generated only 3 megawatts of wind power in 2005, it now produces almost 400 times that amount and expects to reach 2 gigawatts of wind energy by the end of this year. While that's a drop in the bucket of the global 2011 total of almost 240 gigawatts, installed wind power could provide close to 4% of the country's energy supply by early next year – and the Mexican Wind Energy Association expects wind output of 4 gigawatts by 2015.
That's not to say everyone's happy. Critics complain that locals have seen little benefit from the mass of wind turbines, while others say farmers were paid below market rates for land leases. And, as elsewhere, there are complaints about how the turbines have changed the area's mountains and coastline.
But those complaints probably won't stop the wind industry. There are plans to export wind power from a plant on the Baja California peninsula; and the government provides incentives for companies that use wind power and tax breaks for companies that want to build the farms. 1 You might also be interested in ...
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