Getting your player ready...
LA VENTOSA, Mexico — Mexico inaugurated one of the world’s largest wind-farm projects Thursday as the nation looks for alternative energy, in part to compensate for falling oil production.
Mexico is trying to exploit its rich wind and solar potential after relying almost exclusively on petroleum for decades. With oil production down by 9.2 percent in 2008, Mexico is turning to foreign companies, mainly Spanish, to tap its renewable riches.
The new, $550 million proj ect is in a region so breezy that the main town is named La Ventosa, or “Windy.” It’s on the narrow isthmus between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, where winds blow at 15 mph to 22 mph, a near- ideal rate for turbines.
