Until this past December, the idea of a massive, 396-megawatt (MW) wind power plant in Mexico was just a dream, a vision of Mareña Renovables.

Then the project landed part of its financing, and now the Dutch wind company Vestas says it has received an order for 132 V90 3-MW turbines that will comprise the new wind farm on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a wind-rich region in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. When completed, it will be the largest wind installation in Latin America. And it will also power local beer and soft drink operations.

image via Vestas

Mareña Renovables, which has commissioned Vestas to build, install and hook up the turbines to the local electrical grid, is owned by a consortium that includes the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund, Mitsubishi and PGGM, a leading Dutch pension fund service provider.

Power from the wind plant will be sold, under a 20-year power purchase agreement, to Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, the local Mexican operating company of the global Heineken brewing company and a subsidiary of Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA), a consumer company that is also the largest local bottler of Coca-Cola. Delivery of the turbines is set to begin next month.

In December, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a loan of up to 1.1 billion Mexican pesos (around $72 million) to Mareña Renovables to help the project. Financing for the project was completed in late February for a total of 8.9 billion pesos ($682 million) from the consortium that owns Mareña Renovables.

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