Enel’s 200 MW Dominica wind farm in Mexico has won the Infrastructure 360º Award in the “Climate and Environment” category. The annual awards, which are organised by the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB), recognise the private sector projects making the biggest contribution to the creation of a more sustainable Latin American infrastructure sector.
“We are delighted that the Dominica wind project has received such a prestigious sustainability award,” said Nicola Melchiotti, Head of Enel Green Power Mexico and Central America, Enel’s subsidiary in the country. “The prize shines a light on the Enel Group’s capability to provide energy to Mexico that is sustainable in every sense of the word, as well as the company’s broader overall commitment to supply competitive green energy to our clients.”
Announcing the award, the IDB Group acknowledged Dominica’s contribution to the diversification of Mexico’s energy mix, as well as its avoidance of the annual emission of around 300,000 tonnes of CO2. The bank also praised Dominica’s activities in ensuring its harmonious integration with surrounding ecosystems, such as the construction of greenhouses to preserve local cactus species, production of sustainable cattle forage from maguey and the donation of two 3 KW solar facilities to local schools to help them meet their energy consumption needs.
The IDB Group Private Sector Infrastructure Sustainability Awards, or Infrastructure 360° Awards, now in their third edition, seek to identify, assess, and reward sustainable infrastructure investments made by the private sector and public-private partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean. Launched in 2013, the programme is a partnership between the Harvard Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), the private sector arm of the IDB Group.
The 12 finalists for the 2016 Infrastructure 360° Awards were announced in September last year. Each project was reviewed by a jury of international experts that identified the three winners.
The Dominica wind farm is located in Charcas in the state of San Luis Potosí. The plant has a total installed capacity of 200 MW from 100 wind turbines, each with 2 MW, and is capable of generating up to 510 GWh per year.
Enel, through its local subsidiary Enel Green Power México, is the largest renewables operator in Mexico in terms of installed capacity and project portfolio. The Group operates nearly 500 MW of capacity, of which 446 MW comes from wind and 53 MW from hydropower, and has two wind projects currently under construction: the 129 MW Palo Alto wind farm in the State of Jalisco and the 100 MW Vientos del Altiplano wind farm in Zacatecas State. The Group was also recently awarded the right to sign 15-year energy supply and 20-year clean certificate supply contracts with three PV solar projects that have a total capacity of around 1 GW.
