MSNBC.com: Mexican wind energy boom plays out on gusty shores
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"We're talking about the largest growth in wind power projects anywhere in the world," President Felipe Calderon said recently near La Ventosa at the opening of Latin America's largest wind park owned by Spanish company Acciona SA, a long row of turbines whirring behind him.
Producing just 3 megawatts of wind power in 2005, Mexico now has nearly 400 times that, and will have 2 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2012, says the Mexican Wind Energy Association, or AMEE. Though it only accounts for a fraction of the 2011 global total of nearly 240 GW, by the beginning of next year, Mexico's installed wind power potential should equal almost 4 percent of the country's own energy needs.
The planned build-up will make Mexico's wind industry the fastest growing in the Group of 20 economic powers this year, said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Brussels-based GWEC. He also said Mexico's net addition to installed capacity in 2012 could be the fifth highest of any country.
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Natural wind tunnel
The difference in temperature between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean in the southern state of Oaxaca creates one of the planet's strongest wind tunnels as gusts tear through gaps in the Sierra Madre mountains.
"When the wind blows hard here, buses fall over and entire trees are uprooted," said La Ventosa shopkeeper Miriam Luis.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47419184/ns/world_news-world_environment/#.T7MBgOh8DHQ
That sounds like the Santa Ana winds from the high deserts of California.
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