OAXACA WIND POWER COMPLEX

Oaxaca Wind Power Complex is the largest wind power complex in Latin America, with an operating capacity of 306 MW. The farm is comprised of 204 wind turbines manufactured by our partners ACCIONA Windpower. The project supplies enough electricity to power 700,000 homes, resulting in 670,000 metric tons of carbon emission reductions from the atmosphere each year. This is equivalent to eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that could otherwise be produced by average passenger vehicles driving 1.6 billion miles.

 

Building renewable energy infrastructure in Mexico is critical, given the country's significant rise in manufacturing, which has continued to move south from the U.S. and Canada. Significant investments in manufacturing infrastructure in Mexico in recent years have made Mexico an important manufacturing site for automobiles, electronics and appliances destined for the U.S market. In fact, Mexico's share (US $294 billion) of total U.S. imports annually has risen sharply to compete with that of China (US $466 billion) and Canada (US $346 billion) among the top three importers to the U.S.

Given the fact that Mexico has great petroleum reserves, the Mexican national grid system relies primarily on the combustion of fossil fuels to meet national electricity demand. The Oaxaca Wind Power Complex is therefore a significant project that voluntarily increases annual renewable energy production in Mexico by 1,129 million kilowatt-hours.

Renewable wind infrastructure is essential to minimizing the effects of climate change, particularly in Mexico given the high wind energy potential in the zone of “El Istmo de Tehuantepec”. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) completed a high-resolution wind resource map for the State of Oaxaca in 2002, revealing 33,000 MW of wind potential in the Isthmus region alone in Oaxaca, with over 6,000 MW of usable wind resources. However, in 2009 Mexico had a participation of a mere 0.13% installed capacity (202 MW).

The Oaxaca Wind Power Complex emission reductions are verified by an accredited third-party verifier to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). VCS is an independent third-party greenhouse gas Project Certification Program. The Oaxaca Wind Power Complex project documentation can be viewed here.

All verified emission reductions are registered as carbon credits by VCS and tracked by unique verification code in one metric tonne volumes. Each customer's micro-contribution is aggregated with other micro-contributions to purchase and permanently retire one metric tonne volume increments on the APX Environmental Registry by Carbon Checkout, LLC, "On Behalf of Carbon Checkout Customers". 

PROJECT TYPE: Wind Power

PROJECT LOCATION: Oaxaca, Mexico

VERIFICATION PROTOCOL: Verified Carbon Standard

ANNUAL EMISSION REDUCTIONS: Approximately 670,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year
Per capita CO2 Emissions by Country

By default, we reference per capita CO2 emissions for the United States when providing estimates concerning the percentage of your footprint that will be offset with each investment. To reference the per capita CO2 emissions for other countries, please see the table below.