The Mexican government plans to invest up to three billion US Dollars (2.18 billion €) in the next three years in wind power. This will be done in order to generate up to 2,000 megawatts (MW).
The Ministry of Energy will team up with local companies to implement wind turbines throughout the country.
Seven companies engaged themselves to produce 1492 MW by 2010. This is an excellent news and I will give more information about it here.
The main companies involved in this interesting project are Electricidad del Valle de México, Eoliatec del Istmo, Bii Nee Stipa Energía Eólica and Fuerza Eólica del Istmo.
The companies will use the grid already in place to transport the electricity that will be generated.
This is done as the Mexican government wants to partake in the mitigation of climate change and want to generate energy in a more sustainable way.
I took the opportunity to look at the energy issues in Mexico. This country is the sixth world producer of oil with more than 3.7 millions barrels per day. (source IEA). It only passed beyond its peak oil production in 2004 (source)
Meanwhile, most of the local electricity is generated by thermal plants (23,830 MW) then comes hydro power with 9,900 MW. (source : Mexico in the Spanish Wikipedia)
The remaining energy sources produce less than 5,000 MW and are wind energy, nuclear power and solar. To me, the latter can have a huge potential to provide clean electricity to Mexico.
Sources in Spanish :
- Terra.es : Invertirán en México 3.000 millones de dólares en plantas de energía eólica ;
- Milenio : Invertirán tres mil mdd en proyectos de energía eólica
Sources in French :
- Actu Environnement : Le Mexique va investir 3 milliards de dollars dans l’éolien ;
- Enviro 2B : Mexique, investissement de 3 milliards de dollars dans l’éolien.