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On its endless dunes and cacti, the silent desert of the state of Coahuila to the north seems to be the same as any other except that it houses the largest park in the world. 39 solar energy in Latin America.
The site was chosen by the Italian company Enel to install 2 million 300,000 solar panels that are expected to generate enough energy for 1.3 million homes in Mexico from the second half of this year.
Silent, blue solar panels – which cover an area equivalent to 2,200 football fields – move slowly following the sun as if they were sunflowers. In the distance, they look like an ocean in the middle of the desert.
But they are a sample of Mexico's goal, so that 35% of electricity is produced by clean energies such as the sun or the wind by 2024. [19659003] This goal is possible thanks to the 2013 energy reform, which ended 76 years of state monopoly in the sector.
It also opened to the private sector the production and supply of electricity and put an end to the monopoly of the state. (CFE)
This part of the reform sometimes goes unnoticed by Mexicans, although it has aroused the enthusiasm of businessmen.
"We are very satisfied with the environment and the opportunities in Mexico," says Antonio Cammisecra. , Director of Enel's Global Renewable Energy Division
"After the reform, we see better market conditions and better opportunities for a company like ours," he adds
. The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has criticized the energy openness of the campaign, analysts doubting that it interrupts the arrival of investments.
LOWER COSTS
The goal of generating clean energy is also achievable Solar technology has dropped significantly.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that promotes clean energy, the cost of manufacturing solar panels has dropped dramatically over the last decade. "
" The solar photovoltaic energy has experienced the fastest growth in the world
This has an impetus in the technological innovators, "says Arturo García, expert in solar energy. Deloitte consultant
The solar energy industry in Mexico also took note. 659003] "Before the reform was an environmental problem," says Víctor Ramírez, executive director of the National Association of Solar Energy, an organization that brings together several companies in the sector in Mexico.
"Today is not just an environmental problem, but economic .It's getting cheaper to have energy from solar sources," he says. 39, investment will go there. "
Therefore, the interest of a company like Enel: in addition to the solar park in the desert in which he invested $ 650 million, has another in the state of Guanajuato
Also builds a wind farm in Coahuila and another in Tamaulipas.
Last May, the company is committed to invest $ 97 million more to expand its facilities
Other companies are betting on solar energy, the company Dutch Alten builds a solar park in Aguascalientes, while the Spanish company Iberdrola builds similar facilities in Sonora and San Luis Potosí.
Atlas Renewable Energy, supported by the British Actis Capital Fund, recently acquired the Guajiro project in Hidalgo, which is expected to produce energy for about 120,000 households a year.
"Mexico has a world-wide solar resource, very good characteristics, especially in the central part of the north," says Camilo Serrano, the company's general manager in the country.
ELECTRICAL ENCITIES
To promote this type of energy, the reform established electric auctions, a mechanism in which private companies buy and sell energy from clean sources, and who left an estimated investment of $ 8,600 million, according to official figures.
"adds Serrano, Atlas Energy.
Secretary of Energy, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, said in April that after the auction will be built in a total of 40 solar installations. and 25 wind farms
He added that in 2015, there were nine solar parks and that by 2021, it is expected to reach 68.
To date, three auctions have had place, in which A decrease in the costs of producing electric power has been observed, making it a more viable investment.
The cost of power generation went from $ 50 per megawatt to $ 20 in the third auction.
] With these figures, the government ensures that Mexico is one of the 10 countries with the largest net investment in the world.
He hopes to keep up the trend with the upcoming auction in November of this year.
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