Six wind and solar projects in Mexico, including 105MW of solar, could be purchased by US renewable energy and energy efficiency company Blue Earth, it was announced yesterday.
Blue Earth, headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, said that it had signed a letter of agreement for “exclusive rights” to make the acquisition, which remain subject to completion of due diligence.
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The projects total 273MW across all six, with the four utility-scale solar projects complemented by two utility-scale wind projects with a generation capacity of 168MW.
The company said that it will issue shares of stock to fund acquisitions, should they go ahead. Blue Earth and the current owner of the projects, which was not named in the announcement, will enter into a project development agreement worth US$2.5 million. This agreement would be used to take the projects forward to the next stage, a Notice to Proceed (NTP), which would mean they will be ready for construction.
According to Blue Earth, the due diligence process must be completed in under two months and should cover every aspect of development and construction, including power purchase agreements (PPAs) and project construction costs. Blue Earth said however that “all significant purchase terms have been agreed upon”.
Mexico has been cited among the top three countries for solar PV in Latin America. Analyst firm, NPD Solarbuzz, recently said that the Latin America and Caribbean region has 1GW of projects currently under construction, along with a massive 22GW pipeline of projects at all phases of development.
In August, Chinese firm Suntech also identified Mexico’s potential, along with Brazil and Chile, while Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predicted growth for solar in Mexico and Central America for 2015 and 2016 after a relatively quiet 2014.
