Vestas wins 396 MW turbines order in Mexico

Reuters, Mon, Mar 12 2012

* Vestas gets 396 MW turbines order from Mexico
* Turbines are for Latin America's biggest wind project
* Power will be used by Heineken and FEMSA

COPENHAGEN, March 12 (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas has won an order in Mexico for turbines with a total capacity of 396 megawatts (MW), which will be installed at the biggest wind power project in Latin America, the company said on Monday.

The order for the turbines, which will generate power for beer and Coca-Cola bottling in Mexico, lifted Vestas's year-to-date announced orders to 865 MW, the company said on Monday.

Vestas does not disclose the value of orders, but turbines usually cost around 1 million euros ($1.31 million) per megawatt of capacity.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S said in a statement the order for 132 of its V90-3.0 MW turbines was from the Marena Renovables project, a consortium of Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund, Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation and Dutch pension group PGGM.

Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund is a unit of Australian investment bank Macquarie Group.

The project on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the southeastern State of Oaxaca will be the "largest wind energy project in Latin America and will directly provide electricity to one of the continent's largest companies," Vestas said.

The power generated by the wind farm will be bought by Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, an operating company of Dutch brewer Heineken N.V. and subsidiaries of Mexican retail and beverage group FEMSA under 20-year power purchase agreements, Vestas said.

"The electricity generated by this wind power plant will be used to power part of the operations of Coca-Cola FEMSA, (FEMSA's convenience store chain) OXXO and Heineken N.V. in Mexico," Alfonso Garza, a FEMSA director, said in the statement. "This power supply agreement will help us cover our energy needs in a sustainable way."

The customers had initially announced the preliminary order in March 2011.

Delivery of the turbines will start in the second quarter of 2012, Vestas said.

On a turnkey basis, Vestas will provide services to build the wind farm, including civil and electrical works, supply, installation and commissioning of the turbines, an online control, and 10-year service and maintenance contract, it said.

Vestas shares firmed on the announcement and traded up 0.7 percent by 1042 GMT, outperforming the Copenhagen bourse's bluechip index which was up 0.3 percent. ($1 = 0.7622 euros) (Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)