The high costs of investing in wind farms, as well as the lack of legislative certainty, are the main barriers for them to generate carbon offset certificates, said Alejandra López, Program Manager at EcoSecurities.

"If we could give carbon offsets certificates through the production of wind energy, the certificates would only represent an investment plus", said during her participation at Wind Expo LAWEA 2008.

In Mexico there are 106 projects that have already making good on the MDL. However, there are only five that belong to the wind energy sector, and not one of them generates carbon offsets certificates. In fact, there are only 20 projects generating such certificates and, in every case, they are farms. For this reason, López recommended that this eco-financial instrument be seen as an independent element in the decision making process for new wind projects.

The reason wind projects cannot generate certificates is the high installation costs in comparison to other CDM projects.

Another obstacle is the return on investment that tends to be over large periods of time. Moreover, this projects tend to face too many legal and legislative challenges. "It is very difficult to obtain all the required permits and navigate the bureaucracy before any wind project can be started", she said.

According to López, the garbage dumps are the most profitable in terms of generating carbon offset certificates, mostly due to the low investment needed for their development.

EcoSecurities is one of the largest developers and suppliers of emission reductions, for both compliance and voluntary markets. They have presence in more than 37 countries.