Mesa La Paz Wind Farm

Mesa La Paz wind farm is a 306MW onshore wind power project under-construction near the town of Llera de Canales, in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The wind farm is being developed by EnerAB, a 50:50 joint venture between AES Corporation and Grupo BAL, with an estimated investment of $580m.

EnerAB acquired the onshore wind project from Oak Creek Energy in 2017 and secured financing as well as signed a 25-year corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) in 2018. Key contracts for the wind farm were also awarded in the same year.

Expected to come online in 2020, the Mesa La Paz wind farm will generate sufficient clean electricity to power approximately 580,000 homes in the Mexican state Tamaulipas.

Mesa La Paz wind park location and make-up

The Mesa La Paz wind park site is located in the northeastern region of the state of Tamaulipas, near the Gulf of Mexico.

The onshore wind park comprises two wind farm sites, namely Mesa La Paz East and Mesa La Paz West. It will use a total of 85 V136-3.45MW wind turbines from Vestas.

The electricity generated at the wind park will be evacuated through 400kV transmission lines from two onsite substations.

Mesa La Paz wind turbine details

Each V136-3.45MW turbine of the Mesa La Paz wind farm will have 66.7m-long blades weighing 70t each and a 136m-diameter rotor. The rated capacity of each V136-3.45MW turbine is 3.45MW, which will be optimized to 3.6MW for the project.

The cut-in and cut-out wind speeds of the turbines will be 3m/s and 22.5m/s respectively, while the hub-height will range between 82m and 132m.

The installed height, length, and width of the nacelle of each turbine will be 6.9m, 12.8m, and 4.2m respectively, while the gearbox of each turbine will be of two planetary stages and one helical stage type.

The V136-3.45MW turbines are designed to operate at both 50Hz and 60Hz frequencies.

Mesa La Paz wind farm financing

The $580m wind power project is being financed through 76% debt and 24% equity. The $440.2m of debt funding for the project is provided by Mexican state-owned bank and export credit agency Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Bancomext), French international banking group BNP Paribas, and US-based multinational investment bank JP Morgan.

Bancomext provided $63m a loan facility, while BNP Paribas and JP Morgan agreed to provide $188.6m of credit facility each in April 2018.

Paul Hastings and Mijares Angoitia Cortes y Fuentes advised BNP Paribas and JP Morgan for the financing deal, while Galicia Abogados served as the legal advisor to AES Corporation and Grupo BAL.

The project owners AES Corporation and Grupo BAL have provided $70m of equity investment each for the Mesa La Paz wind power project.

Contractors involved

Vestas was awarded the contract to supply and install 85 V136-3.45MW turbines optimized to 3.6MW capacity each for the Mesa La Paz wind farm in June 2018.

The turbine supply contract also involves an Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement for the operation and maintenance of the wind farm for a period of 15 years.

ACCIONA Industrial was appointed as the balance-of-plant (BoP) contractor for the Mesa La Paz wind farm by the EnerAB consortium in September 2018.

ACCIONA is responsible for the auxiliary systems including civil engineering, electrical wiring, and grid connection for the project.

Ingenor was subcontracted by ACCIONA for proving detailed engineering services for the Mesa La Paz wind farm.