Mexican banks to finance nearly 1 GW of renewable projects

Mexico's Energy Secretariat (SENER) has announced that the country’s state-owned development banks are to finance 964 MW of wind and solar capacity across three projects.

Entities that will be in charge of the financing are the National Bank of Foreign Trade (Bancomext), National Financiera (Nafin) and the National Bank of Works and Public Services (Banobras). 

The projects that will be financed are the winners of the second electric auction that took place in September 2016. These are namely: 

Mexican electric utility Zuma Energia will receive US$330 million in public loans for the development of the 424 MW Reynosa III Wind Park, to be located in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The project, which involves a total investment of and US$642 million, will also receive a US$110 million private loan from Santander Bank.

The wind turbines will be supplied by Vestas while Acciona has been commissioned to provide the EPC services. Once completed, the Reynosa III Wind Park will be Mexico's largest wind farm. 

In a separate statement Cubico Sustainable Investments has announced that it has achieved financial closing for the 250 MW El Mezquite wind farm in the state of Nuevo Leon, and the 350 MWp Solem solar PV project in Aguascalientes. The total amount of non-recourse project finance debt raised was US$ 450 million, US$ 220 million for El Mezquite and US$ 230 million for Solem.

El Mezquite wind project will be financed by the North American Development Bank and the Mexican development banks, Bancomext and Banobras.  

The group of lenders of the Solem solar PV project is comprised of: the Inter-American Investment Corporation, acting on behalf of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, alongside the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in the Americas and the China Co-Financing Fund for Latin America & the Caribbean, the International Finance Corporation, Bancomext, Banobras and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).

The projects are the first to successfully close financing from contracts awarded under the country's second long-term electricity auction in September 2016. The capacity awarded at the second auction accounts for 3% of annual electricity generation in Mexico and involves an investment of approximately US$4 billion in new energy facilities. All projects are expected to begin commercial operation in 2019. 

As we informed in May 2017, SENER has published, a call for a new power auction in the country. The auction will use similar mechanism as the previous one in 2016 except that power can be sold to other participants aside from state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) for the first time.

We have lately informed about other renewable projects in México: 

• 76 MW Tizimin wind farm in Yucatan
• 231 MW Santiago solar farm in Sao Luis Potosi
• 136 MW Hermosillo solar farm in Sonora
• 13.6 MW Los Santos Solar I Park in Ahumada
• 148.5 MW Tres Mesas wind energy project in Tamaulipas
• 200 MW Eolica de Coahuila wind park in Coahuila state