London-based Cubico Sustainable Investments, a global renewable energy investor backed by Canadian pension funds, recently reached operations on a 600 MW portfolio in Mexico.
The portfolio comprises the 250 MW Mezquite wind farm in Nuevo León and the 350 MW Solem solar photovoltaic project in Aguascalientes. The energy generated by these projects is enough to supply more than 200,000 average households in Mexico.
“These projects are honoring all their obligations under the power purchase agreements awarded in Mexico’s second long-term electricity auction in September 2016,” states Osvaldo Rancé, head of Mexico at Cubico. “The bulk of the of the energy, clean energy certificates and capacity produced by these projects [is] sold at very competitive prices to the Mexican state-owned utility CFE Basic Supply, the entity responsible for energy supply to the low-income housing and agribusiness sectors.”
In addition to this portfolio, Cubico has another two wind projects in Mexico in advanced stages of development with a capacity of 400 MW. These projects maintain legacy status under the former self-supply regulatory framework, which offers the benefit of a fixed wheeling cost and a virtual energy bank. This development portfolio is expected to reach ready-to-build status during the first half of 2020, with construction following immediately and operations starting in 2021.
Rancé adds,” The legacy status provides these projects an intrinsic scarcity value and a competitive edge to secure bilateral corporate PPAs, which has become the name of the game now that the long-term electricity auctions have been temporarily cancelled.”
