Northland Power takes FID on 130MW La Lucha solar project in Mexico

Canadian power company Northland Power has made a final investment decision (FID) for its 100% owned 130MW La Lucha solar project, which will be built with an investment of approximately CAD$190 million ($141.2 million) in the Mexican state Durango.

Northland Power said that it got all the major permits required for the Mexican solar project and construction is expected to begin shortly. The La Lucha solar project is targeted to be brought into operations in the second half of 2020.

Northland Power will initially fund the La Lucha solar plant through a mix of cash and credit and later on, will use a non-recourse project financing once power purchasing agreements are in place.

Javier Chavarria – Managing Director – Northland Power Development for Latin America said: “The robust fundamentals of Mexico’s power markets give us the confidence to build La Lucha as our first attractive investment opportunity in the country.

“There is significant interest within the Mexican industrial sector to meet some of their energy needs through contracts linked to renewable power facilities like La Lucha.”

Northland Power plans to work out bilateral power purchasing agreements with various local commercial and industrial offtakers in the Mexican market.

Mike Crawley – President and CEO of Northland Power, commenting on the La Lucha solar project, said: “La Lucha is the first investment opportunity to come out of our regional development offices located in Toronto, Houston, London, Seoul and soon, Tokyo. These offices are designed to put knowledgeable, local and experienced development teams on the ground in our identified growth markets.

“This also represents our first step towards moving closer to the end customer in select markets to drive more accretive growth.”

Northland Power has stakes across 2.43GW of operating generating capacity and 399MW of generating capacity under construction. Included in its portfolio is the Deutsche Bucht offshore wind project in the North Sea along with the 1,044MW Hai Long projects under development in Taiwan in which it has a stake of 60%.