Indigenous community forces Mareña relocation

MEXICO: Indigenous community blockaders have told “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç that 396MW Mareña wind farm in the Mexican state of Oaxaca will not be built and that the proposed turbines will be moved to two alternative sites.

by Michael McGovern 21 August 2014

Members of the Huave community have blocked the wind farm's progress

The original Mareña project — featuring 132 Vestas 3MW turbines — was initially scheduled to go online in spring 2013 on the Santa Teresa sandbar near San Dionisio del Mar. But local protestors blockaded the site over concerns about land rights.

Australian group Macquarie — the public voice of the consortium — declined to comment. The other two stakeholders, each roughly with a one-third share, are Japan's Mitsubishi and Dutch pension fund PGGM.

Claims regarding the shift are shored up by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), which has been processing a finance application since February this year for a new project, also at 396MW, called Eólica del Sur.

The new project also specifies 132 Vestas 3MW turbines and is signed up to supply power to the same client as Mareña — bottling firm Femsa.

The new project specifies two sites, Espinar (216MW) and Juchitan (180MW), in Juchitan de Zaragoza municipality, about 50 kilometres from San Dionisio.