Portuguese company Martifer Solar signed a development agreement with Canadian Solar for a 63 MW plant in Mexico, which is one of the largest in the companys pipeline. The project was awarded during Mexicos electricity auction in March, with a generous Power Purchase Agreement in place for the electricity that will be generated from the plant.
It is big news for Martifer Solar, who actually began initial development of the project in late 2015, as part of MIRE, which is a joint venture formed by Martifer Solar Sistemas Solares, S.A., Energía ECG, S.A.P.I de C.V. and Ithaca Environmental Ventures Limited to develop projects in Mexico. MIRE sourced the land and the interconnection point in Aguascalientes, Mexico, which allowed them to string up an agreement with Canadian Solar before the auction.
It is an honor work together with Canadian Solar on the development of this project and we are very pleased with this milestone achievement for our team in Mexico, said Jesus Pacheco, Director of Development for Latin America from Martifer Solar. Since Martifer Solar has been present in the market since 2011, it is exciting to see the growth and significant potential of Mexicos renewable energy sector starting to be realized.
The project is expected to take around two years to develop, with the third quarter of 2018 set as the target for the site to be fully operational. Once it starts producing electricity, Canadian Solar has a generous Power Purchase Agreement in place with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) of US$47.95 MWh on a 15-year deal, and a 20-year deal for Clean Energy Certificates. This is significantly higher than the average price of $40.50 MWh for the solar projects agreed in the auction.
The auction attracted 109 bidders, who submitted 468 technical offers between them. The projects from the successful bids ranged in size from between 18 MW to 500 MW. More auctions have already been lined up, as Mexico tries to achieve its ambitious target of reaching 25% clean energy generation by 2018 and 50% by 2050.
We are proud to see this successful result from Mexicos first renewable energy auction, as we view it as an important emerging market within Latin America, said Henrique Rodrigues, CEO of Martifer Solar. We look forward to working together with Canadian Solar, as well as with CFE and CENACE in order to help accelerate Mexico's transition to a clean energy leader within the region.
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