ACCIONA Energía wins IADB award for Cemex Eurus wind farm project

ACCIONA Energía has won the Infraestructura 360º prize awarded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for the sustainability of its infrastructure projects implemented in the Latin America/Caribbean area. The winning project was the Eurus wind farm, built and operated by ACCIONA Energía México as a self-supply project for Cemex. The jury particularly highlighted its positive impact on the quality of life of the surrounding community.

The award, granted in the modality of Población y Liderazgo [population and leadership] was received today by Verónica De Parres, Director of Quality, Safety and Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility of ACCIONA Energía México, during the annual meeting of the IADB held in Busan (South Korea).

The project presented by ACCIONA was selected by an international jury from among more than 40 projects from 10 countries. The projects were evaluated using the infrastructure sustainability analysis methodology created by the Zofnass-Harvard Program of the Graduate School of Design of the North American university to analyze and quantify the sustainability of infrastructure projects in an objective way.

According to the evaluation report, the Eurus project “has demonstrated excellent performance in the improvement of the quality of life of the community where it is located”.

For his part, IADB Vice President for the Private Sector and Non-Sovereign Guaranteed Operations Hans Schultz stated that “we should invest in sustainable infrastructures to face up to the challenges of climate change and achieve inclusive growth in their region. The Infraestructura 360 prizes recognize pioneering sustainability practices in the private sector to make progress in that direction.”

The Eurus wind farm is located at La Venta, in the municipality of Juchitán de Zaragoza in Oaxaca State (Mexico). It is one of the biggest wind farms in Latin America, with 250.5MW generated by 167 wind turbines of 1500kW each. It produces an average 989GWh of electric power a year, equivalent to the consumption of a city of 500,000 people, and avoids the emission of around 600,000t of CO2 per year.