PUERTO PEÑASCO, Mexico (AP) — In April, Mexico plans to activate the primary section of an enormous photo voltaic vitality undertaking close to a coastal metropolis in style with vacationers touring from the US.
When accomplished, the complete $1.6 billion undertaking could have a producing capability of 1,000 megawatts – sufficient to energy about 500,000 properties. It’s the largest photo voltaic undertaking constructed by Mexico’s state-owned energy firm.
In Puerto Peñasco, close to the tip of the Gulf of California and the Arizona border, rows of photo voltaic panels tilting towards the sundown run towards the horizon hovering over the sand. The undertaking will finally cowl 5,000 hectares of the transition the place the desert flattens between the rugged brown mountains and the blue sea.
The Federal Electrical Fee plans that the primary 120 megawatts of the undertaking operational on April 29, Juan Antonio Fernández, the strategic planning director of the fee, stated Thursday.
In a presentation to a number of overseas diplomats in Puerto Peñasco, International Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard stated the undertaking is a regional illustration of Mexico’s “new growth mannequin.”
Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo, who beforehand served as a Cupboard minister with Ebrard earlier than operating for state workplace, made the case that Sonora ought to develop into the middle of electrical car manufacturing in Mexico. Along with photo voltaic vitality coming on-line – a complete of 5 gigawatts of photo voltaic capability is deliberate for the state – Sonora has the most important recognized deposits of lithium within the nation, an necessary a part of batteries for of electrical autos.
The shift towards renewable vitality is at odds with different priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The president invested closely in supporting the long-standing struggling state-owned oil firm. He constructed an enormous new oil refinery. And he pushed laws that offers state-owned energy corporations benefits over non-public vitality manufacturing, which in lots of circumstances is cleaner. It’s the topic of a commerce dispute between the US and Canada.
Ebrard is certainly one of many individuals searching for the presidential nomination of López Obrador’s Morena celebration for the 2024 nationwide elections.
