
By Vanessa Dezem and Adam Williams / Bloomberg
Renewable energy developers won contracts to produce 1,720 megawatts of power in Mexico during the country’s first-ever private auction after the government ended a decades-long state electricity monopoly in 2013.
Seven wind and solar companies including Enel Green Power, SunPower Systems Mexico and Recurrent Energy won 15-year contracts to rights to provide the state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad with power beginning in 2018, Cesar Emiliano Hernandez, Mexico’s deputy electricity minister, said in Mexico City.
The contracts are expected to generate more than $2.1 billion in investment by 2018, he said.
“The results were better than some of the most successful auctions in the world,” Hernandez said in a press conference in Mexico City. “Many top level international companies competed and Mexico will receive a very important amount of investment.”
Mexico is restructuring its energy markets in an effort to spur billions in investment after a historic overhaul approved in 2013 to open state-run monopolies in the oil and electricity industries. The government has set a goal of getting 35 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2024, up from 25 percent now.