A security guard at the Don José solar park, in San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato State (Mexico). Alejandro Cegarra (Bloomberg)
A solar park in Zacatecas of 76.5 megawatts has been ruled out at a stroke by the Energy Regulatory Commission this week.
The photovoltaic project, which involved an investment of about 85 million dollars, has been denied the power generation permit in the last session of the regulatory body.
Like this, six other renewable electricity projects were ruled out by the CRE commissioners, all of them add up to more than 670 green megawatts that have been turned off after the decision of the regulatory body.
So far this year, more than twenty electricity generation permits requested by private renewable companies have been rejected by this Commission,
Added to the blockades of energy permits is the modification of the electricity law to give priority to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) for its hydroelectric and thermal plants in the energy matrix, while privately owned wind and solar projects remain in second place of electrical dispatch.
A closure that was later contravened by the inauguration of a solar mega-park in the State of Sonora, which will add a gigawatt of green energy in mid-July.
With an investment of 1,685 million dollars, the plant will be owned by the CFE and the local government.
The contradictory signals from the Executive continue.
After his visit to Washington, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, opened the possibility for individuals to associate with the CFE to promote clean energy projects in the north of the country.
“We want to replicate the project that began in Sonora, a solar plant, throughout the border, not only to have energy in our country, but also to be able to export energy to border states of the American Union.
That is what we are talking about, as long as the planning is in charge of the Secretary of Energy and the main partner is the CFE”, he declared after his visit to the United States.
CFE generators at the La Ventosa wind farm, Oaxaca State (Mexico) in 2013. Susana Gonzalez (Bloomberg)
“Foreign investment can be allowed in partnership with the CFE.
In order for us in the north to have energy and to be able to export electricity, we do have to replicate the solar plants, but we also need gas plants, as backup, and we need the laying of transmission lines.
They are strong investments, but there is interest from US investors.
The same in the case of gas”, added the president.
However, industry analysts observe these mixed messages with disbelief.
In the speech there is talk of an opportunity to start green projects, however, in practice the Energy Regulatory Commission continues to deny most of the renewable electricity permits that reach its table.
Montserrat Ramiro, a consultant for the energy sector, emphasizes that this Government has dedicated the last three years to blocking the way for private electricity, solar and wind generation projects.
"This government has done everything so that we don't have more renewables and with that framework there is no certainty for investments to be made, they don't even let you invest because the CRE denies you all permits," she says.
“How is a private company going to risk its capital if CFE is going to operate the plant, what they are really saying is not investment, but contracts, and then again we are going back to the schemes of the nineties and two thousand to be able to have electricity when the private ones could not be there, because in no other way a private person is going to put up the money”, he explains.
The Belisario Domínguez hydroelectric plant, on the Grijalva River, Chiapas (Mexico), operated by the CFE since it began operating in 1976.Jeoffrey Guillemard (Bloomberg)
Karla Cedano, president of the National Association of Solar Energy (ANES), pointed out that there is no clarity on the type of consortia that the Executive intends to make with the private ones and with the Secretary of Energy (Sener).
“Uncertainty always hits investments.
It does seem necessary to us that there is a better coordination of the sector, industry, Government and academia.
We need more data and more clarity, ”she ditches.
Specialists in the energy sector agree that the scenario, which was already challenging, has become more complicated now that the United States has raised its voice against the energy policy of this Administration.
However, for Ramiro this complaint from abroad is a confirmation of what private developers have had to suffer for months to try to circumvent a policy that clearly intends to benefit only the CFE, even at the expense of the green goals that already the country has signed.
According to the requests for electric power generation permits submitted as of June 10, 2022, there are more than 60 pending procedures to receive a resolution by the Governing Body of the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Among these requests, only seven correspond to the Federal Electricity Commission and its subsidiaries, while the rest are requests from private entrepreneurs.
By type of energy, it can be seen that among the permits that are pending, more than 30 of them correspond to solar power generation and about 32 to wind energy.
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