To narrow down its carbon footprint as one of the world’s foremost cement makers, CEMEX air quality is planning to contribute $120 million in carbon credits. The amount would bankroll a series of eco-friendly projects well into 2012, including a wind farm the scale of which is unprecedented in Mexico, where CEMEX environment is based.

Based in Monterrey, CEMEX environment intends to fulfill projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas reduction. Of these, the most ambitious yet is a wind park known as Eurus.

Eurus is set to be Latin America’s biggest wind energy complex, generating 250 megawatts of power via 167 turbines. That is enough electricity to light up 25% of CEMEX`s plants and offices in Mexico. Eurus can likewise power a city with 500,000 inhabitants.

ACCIONA, a Spain-based wind energy developer, and CEMEX environment have collaborated for this project. The two are erecting Eurus on a 2,500-hectare land in the windy Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico.

When completed in late 2009, the wind farm will have expended approximately $550 million. More importantly, it would cut 6 million tons of CO2 annually.

Eurus and CEMEX’s other projects comprise Mexico’s end of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Mandated by the Kyoto Protocol, CDM lets industrialized and developing nations to trade humongous carbon credits.

Among the many wind power projects under CDM, Eurus would be the second-largest.