Unlocking Mexico’s wind potential

September 24, 2025

Albert Sunyer Folch, Nordex’s managing director for Mexico and Colombia, talks to The Energy Year about the company’s wind power operations in Mexico, country’s current market situation and its repowering project with the CFE. Nordex is a multinational designer and manufacturer of wind turbines.

Give us an insight into Nordex’s operations in Mexico.
Worldwide, Nordex has over 57 GW installed. We are present in more than 40 markets, and in Mexico specifically we have 1.95 GW of installed capacity.
The last project we installed was Los Cañones, between 2023 and 2024, which was the first wind farm in all Latin America to successfully install the N155 rotor of our Delta4000 platform. The other projects we have installed in Mexico are mostly supported by Acciona Windpower wind turbines, a technology that Nordex acquired since the merger in 2016. Today we are also installing the first pilot of a repowering wind farm for the CFE in Oaxaca, but other than that, the market is at a standstill period.
Within those 1.95 GW, some of the Oaxaca wind farms in operation are still a reference as the largest ones in Latin America in terms of the number of turbines. We also have turbines installed in the northeast of the country, roughly 30% of the total capacity, in several projects such as Dolores or El Cortijo, as a result of the success of our customers in previous auctions for selling energy to CFE.

What is your opinion on the current market situation?
We are living in a moment of uncertainty but, at the same time, expectation, as we have some indications that the government wants to encourage the sector’s growth, but practically, there are still many things still to be done until we can see new projects up and running.
Compared to the previous administration, there are some great signs. With the new government, we have seen some stated ambition to support the sector. However, as of yet, this all remains theoretical.
Furthermore, in 2025 the government proposed the Mexico Plan, reinforcing its ambitious goals of increasing wind energy generation by about 7-8 GW by 2030. Even if only half of this capacity is added in this period, which is about 800 MW per year, this would almost take us back to the best moments of our industry, with the auctions after the 2013 energy reform.
The CFE specifically has defined its commitment to pursue seven wind projects with an almost USD 3-billion investment, highlighting how, theoretically, we have reason to be hopeful.
However, of course in reality, uncertainty prevails. The judicial reform introduced last year is an important change, and today, many of our clients still have projects on hold, which despite being already installed, have not been allowed to connect to the grid.
Furthermore, there is still some uncertainty in what this 54-46% split in electricity generation really means for the government, with private companies in theory not being allowed to generate more than 46% of electricity. It is also unclear how private companies will be able to profitably introduce batteries into their operations, which today would increase their capex by 30%. We hope with the publishing of the secondary laws of the energy reform, we will see some clarity on it.
All these issues need to be untangled to foster collaboration among private entities and between the CFE and private entities.

Tell us about the repowering project you are undertaking currently with the CFE in Oaxaca and the opportunities you see for these kinds of projects.
The final client for this project is the CFE, but we are only the wind turbine supplier. We are doing the installation through an EPC company. We intend to install a pilot wind turbine this year, which is expected to be part of a wider plan to eventually repower the entire La Venta II wind farm in Oaxaca.
With regards to future opportunities presented by these kinds of projects, I believe, beyond new projects, the repowering of the plants completing their 20 years of service in Oaxaca and elsewhere in the country represent a significant business opportunity, alongside the new capacity to be installed. These wind farms have the advantage of being already connected to the electricity grid, meaning half of the work is essentially already done.

Tell us about the importance of innovation and your processes for continuously developing your products?
For us, the constant improvement of our processes and products with the highest standards of quality is a top priority for us. Therefore, we are always implementing greater supervision and more robust processes, to ensure that the quality continues to meet our standards.
Our Delta4000 platform is an example of this, and it is also vital for our development. The main purpose of this technology is to improve the cost of energy for our customers by providing an optimised portfolio of rotors and towers. However, this game of innovation has to balance with capex. In other words, we need to consider the return on investment.
That being said, we recently installed a prototype in Germany, an N175, with a 179-metre hub height. It is a hybrid tower, made of steel and concrete, and is a major milestone for us.
Finally, specifically regarding the production of the blades, this process remains heavily artisanal, meaning it is not so easy to innovate. Therefore, here we invest a lot of resources in the continuous training and development of personnel so the process is optimised.

How is Nordex positioning itself in the market and with its clients to prepare itself for opportunities when they finally arrive?
Ultimately, our clients are the ones who have to have the security in the investments they make. Therefore, during this period, our role is to ensure that we help them in all the areas we can to ensure projects are as profitable as possible by implementing new technological solutions with our portfolio of wind turbines. Considering the market has stalled for so long, most of the projects that were evaluated in the past, now can take the advantage of the new products already on the market, to improve their performance.
In the next two years therefore, we will be focusing on working not only for our customers in the Mexican market, but also with our other Latin American markets, where we have vast know-how, while projects in the Mexican market become mature projects and ready to be built
In the end, we have no doubt the Mexican market will reactivate; it is a sleeping giant. We are coming out of a very pessimistic momentum, but at least we are seeing movement. This is something we have not seen since 2020, and although we foresee that we will continue not seeing new installations this year in the market, we are noticing signs of positive change. In order to reap the benefits from this change in the future, we have to sow now. This is our focus today.

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