Spanish wind turbine builder Gamesa and San Diego wind farm developer Cannon Power Group have teamed up to start building a wind farm South of the Border to supply clean power to a quarter of a million households in both California and Mexico from 500 MW of power by 2015. Cannon says the site’s potential capacity is ultimately 1,000 MW.

The location’s wind production peaks when demand for electricity is highest; from mid-afternoon to early evening. Typically wind production peaks at low demand hours.

Cannon and Gamesa have signed a 10-year exclusivity agreement and will collaborate on further wind farms that Cannon has plans to develop in Baja California (Mexico) with Gamesa supplying some development assistance and the wind turbines.

The turbines comprising this farm will be spread out across 140 square miles, making it one of the largest in North America. The further apart turbines are within one project, the more stable the power the wind farm supplies is, because the wind is always blowing somewhere.

Groundbreaking begins within the next 12 months with the first 100 MW, with additional construction taking place over the next three to four years, with planned installed capacity to total 500 MW by 2015.

While the site is just 60 miles East of San Diego, it is nevertheless not on US soil, but in Mexico, so the permitting foot-dragging that we see with US clean energy projects in California, where delays of two years are common, is greatly diminished. Cannon has about 1,000 MW of projects under development in the area.

The turbines will be built in Gamesa’s two US manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania, employing 1,000 people in the US. Gamesa has installed over18,000 MW of wind turbine capacity, and has production facilities in Europe, the USA, China and India, employing over 6,300 people worldwide.

Cannon has about 3,000 MW of wind farms under development worldwide, one third of which are in the Baja region covered by this agreement, which has abundant potential for clean power from wind to benefit both countries.

By Fang Inn