Wind Power News: Mexico
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Mexico suspends ongoing clean energy tender
MEXICO: The new government has suspended an ongoing clean energy auction without saying when results will be announced or when contracts may be awarded. Mexico’s grid operator and regulator Cenace (the National Energy Control Centre) stated the suspension would allow president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s new administration to review the tender mechanism’s scope and objectives. However, Cenace, which is responsible for carrying out tenders, did not state when the tender would now be held – only that it would notify relevant . . . Complete story »
Injunction halts Oaxaca wind farm over indigenous rights violations
A federal judge has granted an injunction halting the construction of a new wind farm in Unión Hidalgo, Oaxaca. A group of activists filed the injunction request on the grounds that the rights of local indigenous communities were violated during the planning and development process for the US $600-million project. However, the state Environment and Sustainable Energy Secretary was optimistic about the future of the wind farm, which is being built by the French firm Électricité de France (EDF). José . . . Complete story »
Fishermen’s houses burned to make way for wind farm
Twenty houses were set on fire as a three-year-old dispute flared up over a wind farm in a Oaxaca coastal municipality. Municipal authorities and a community of fishermen are at odds over the Boca Barra wind farm, which was first proposed three years ago. The indigenous fishermen of Pueblo Viejo have strongly opposed it, refusing to give up 15,000 hectares of coastal land. Yesterday, the municipal representative in Pueblo Viejo, Francisco Álvarez, led a group of supporters to the beach . . . Complete story »
Queman 20 viviendas en Oaxaca
Un grupo de habitantes del municipio de San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca, incendió 20 casas rurales de la comunidad de Pueblo Viejo para desalojar a pescadores que viven en la zona y poder ceder el terreno a empresas eólicas. El subsecretario de Desarrollo Político, Carlos Ramos, informó que personal de la dependencia se trasladó al lugar para dialogar con los inconformes. De acuerdo con reportes policíacos, habitantes de la agencia municipal de San Francisco, encabezados por Francisco Álvarez, prendieron fuego . . . Complete story »
National Defense paid twice for Oaxaca wind farm
The Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) was forced to pay twice for the construction of a wind farm on an air force base in Oaxaca after a contractor failed to deliver the project, financial records show. The department contracted with Grupo Tradeco to build the project, whose purpose was to make the Ixtepec base in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region energy self-sufficient. But Sedena cancelled the contract in 2015, arguing that Tradeco had presented fabricated details about the project’s progress. . . . Complete story »
Latin American land owners are fighting to keep power lines out
Gilson Denardin always hated the towering transmission lines crisscrossing his farm in northeastern Brazil. So when he caught wind of plans to put up two more sets of wires, he decided to put up a fight. “It’s awful,” said the owner of 7,400 acres of farmland in Brazil’s Northeast. “My land loses its value with so many power lines.” Denardin is leading a local movement to force power companies to pay farmers more for their trouble, and he’s not alone . . . Complete story »
Court orders halt to Juchitán wind farm
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a wind farm project in Oaxaca must be halted because the process to approve it violated the rights of the local indigenous community. Judges from Mexico’s highest court unanimously decided to grant an amparo, or injunction, to members of the Zapotec community in Juchitán on the grounds that they hadn’t been consulted or given their permission or authorization for the project to go ahead on their land. A district court in Salinas Cruz, Oaxaca . . . Complete story »
Planned Mexico wind farm sparks protests
Protesters marched to oppose a planned wind farm in Oaxaca over the weekend, the latest in a series of mobilizations against developments in the southwestern state that is Mexico’s wind power generation hub. Some 500 people from Unión Hidalgo marched Saturday to protest the planned Gunna Sicaru wind farm that firm Eléctricité de France (EDF) plans to build, according to local media reports. The coastal town and fishing community of Unión Hidalgo is inhabited by people of the indigenous Zapoteco . . . Complete story »
Wind energy blows up storm of controversy in Mexico
Cain Lopez looks tiny standing near the seven enormous wind turbines that tower over his farm in the Mexican village of La Ventosa. In this gusty rural region near the Pacific coast, the wind is so strong it sometimes flips over cars and even trailer trucks. Lopez always considered it a curse, until an international energy company came along and said it wanted to build these 40-meter (130-foot) wind turbines on his land, offering him a small fortune by local . . . Complete story »
Wind-power pollution: Turbine oil seeps into the land in Mexico
Wind turbines were planted along a strip of Mexico’s southern coast to make the country’s power industry cleaner. Now they’re spilling oil. In the town of Juchitan last month, a clean-up was under way around a generator owned by Electricite de France. Workers wearing goggles and masks were scrubbing off a copper-colored lubricant that dripped down from the turbine. They’d wrapped cloth around its base, to absorb further leakage, and stuffed contaminated soil and stones into plastic trash-bags. Cows graze . . . Complete story »
