Lone wind turbine bidder wins contract for supply of 83 MW in Oaxaca

As the only bidder in the call for tenders, a Spanish joint venture between turbine giant Gamesa Eólica and utility Iberdrola has won an 83.3 MW contract awarded by Mexican state utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE). Gamesa will supply 98, 850 kW turbines, to be installed by Iberdrola's engineering wing, Iberinco, at the La Venta II site in Oaxaca state. The tender was CFE's second call for bids -- an earlier call sought bids for 100 MW and while several companies, including Denmark's Vestas, Japan's Mitsubishi and General Electric of the US participated, all came in over CFE's EUR 98.5 million budget. With CFE reducing its capacity requirement to accommodate its budget and all other companies dropping out of the race, the revamped Spanish offer, at EUR 97.9 million, was accepted. Under the terms of the contract, building must be completed within 419 days, with commissioning set for November 1, 2006. In a separate development, Spain's environment ministry has committed to buying carbon emission rights from the 200 MW Bii Nee Stipa project being developed by Gamesa in Mexico's La Ventosa region. The application is currently being processed for registry as a UN Clean Development Mechanism project, a formula set out in the Kyoto Protocol for obtaining carbon credits from renewable energy projects in developing countries.