“False that wind energy is expensive,” NGO responds to CFE in Mexico

The Federal Electricity Commission had claimed that wind power generation prices are expensive.

The statement made by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) that wind power generation prices are expensive compared to that generated by a combined cycle power plant is false, said Víctor Ramírez, spokesperson for Platform Mexico, Climate and Energy .

The consultant considered that CFE disseminates this information, “to permeate the discourse that renewables are expensive when it is a falsehood.”

He said comparing modern technology with old technology is “dishonest” and explained that the first wind farms that CFE installed was 40 years ago with the high costs and technology that the era implied.

“There are some legacy generators that have high costs and old technology that have nothing to do with current ones.”

Hence, he reaffirmed the importance of auctions to acquire energy at a low price. “The third auction had a record of the cheapest prices in the world, $ 20 per megawat and it was through wind equipment, so that comparison is not worth doing.”

Julio Valle, spokesman for the Mexican Wind Energy Association, which brings together foreign and national companies, said that each participant in the electricity sector can give their opinion on the data they have, but in a comparable way.
“CFE is comparing the prices of energy generated by new combined cycle plants with old wind technology 40 years ago,” and it is uneven, he said.

Through a statement, the CFE reported that at the end of September 2019, the megawatt hour generated in wind power plants cost an average of 568 pesos, while for the megawatt hour produced in combined cycle plants only 820 pesos were paid, on average.