Mexico City, Feb 8 (IANS/EFE): Wind power has tremendous potential for growth in Latin America, where demand for renewable energy is high in Central America and the Caribbean, while Mexico has a favourable political environment for the industry, a company official said.

"We have potential in the market, with many attractive elements," the Mexico manager for Danish wind power company Vestas, Adrian Katzew, told EFE.

Central America and the Caribbean lack access to natural gas, forcing countries to generate electricity with diesel and hydro power, which "are very cyclical", the executive said.

Vestas, which develops, manufactures, sells and maintains wind power equipment, is currently involved in projects in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, Katzew said.

Talks are being held with officials in Mexico, where wind power generating capacity passed 1,000 MW in 2012, on the construction of a line to connect the new wind farms in the southern state of Oaxaca to the grid, the executive said.

The goal is to help Mexico reach 2.2 GW in transmission capacity by 2016, Katzew said.

"What Vestas has done is expand its leadership position in the Oaxaca region, but it has also tried to be a factor promoting the sector outside that area," the executive said.