Mexico 'community wind farm' feasible, says NGO

An NGO working with people living in the Mexican state of Oaxaca was reported as saying that construction of a so-called community wind farm there is feasible.

US-based Yansa Foundation, which seeks to bring renewable energy to rural communities, said farms already in operation in the state do not benefit local inhabitants.

The 585MW project was originally proposed in 2011 but remains at a conceptual stage.

"The wind farm model implemented in the Tehuantepec isthmus has not brought with it significant regional development, the communities have received very limited benefit and which is badly distributed, in exchange for the use of their land for wind power generation, and which has resulted in social tensions," Yansa director Sergio Oceransky was quoted as saying by news website Voces Oaxaca.

Yansa proposes that the towers and turbines be built locally via knowledge transfer and training programs. This would create a community business that would generate social value at local, regional and national levels, he said.

The project, the NGO added, would also spur the development of a competitive national wind power industry, opening a new market for Mexican firms while making social and productive development a central axis of the country's energy transition law outlined in the energy reform.

Oceransky did not provide further details of how the project would be funded. But the NGO, on its website, says it is building an "investment platform to finance community-based wind farm projects, offering investors opportunities to advance environmental sustainability and social impact."

"The community wind farms will be financed through debt, ensuring community ownership over the project. The loans will be used to build the wind farm and the resulting power will be bought by the Mexican government's national grid through a guaranteed contract with a fixed price," it adds.

Oaxaca state leads wind power generation in Mexico, with 21 farms, accounting for 90% of the country's wind capacity.

Construction of the 396MW, 132-turbine Eólica del Sur complex in the state, to be Latin America's largest wind farm, was given the go-ahead in August after a consultation process with local indigenous communities.

However, some wind farm projects in Mexico have met with opposition from local residents.

In April 2014, landowners in Juchitán blocked access to the Oaxaca II and Bii Hioxo wind farms, demanding compensation for crop damage. In 2012, locals protested during the opening of the Santo Domingo and Piedra Larga wind farms.