2019, lost year for Mexico in wind energy

The year 2019 was “a lost year” for Mexico in investments and development of wind power projects, said Sergio González Peinado, director of Renovalia, a Spanish company that has two wind farms in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca , the first wind farm in operations since 2011 and the main electricity supplier of Bimbo and Walmart.

The new government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said, “has been a bit lost in renewable energy” because it paralyzed the auctions that were the only method to sell wind energy to the market in this country “because the electricity supplies are already there ending up “.
That is wrong, indicated, and added that since 2014 a substation and power line has been pending in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to continue building wind farms in the region and to evacuate all the energy they generate.

“That power line should have been tendered in 2017 and was being tendered in 2018, but the new government arrived and paralyzed the process. It is another obstacle to build more wind farms, ”criticized Sergio González, interviewed after participating in a meeting of authorities in the Castilla – La Mancha region with Mexican businessmen at the Spanish embassy.

“Total uncertainty” for new investments, but permanence of already established projects

Consider that “total uncertainty” prevails over government decisions and these companies “have stopped a little” their investment projects “because they see no future and hopes what happens.” The current Mexican authorities said, “we need to make things clear.”

– Is the permanence of Renovalia in Mexico at risk?

– No, because our two ecological projects carry out 7 and 5 years, they have a useful life of 25 to 30 years, in addition to that we have contracts with Bimbo and Walmart for 20 years. In what is already working there is no problem, but in building new parks at the moment we are not going to do it.

He added that another obstacle to the sector is the clean energy certificates (CEL) that will now be issued for projects of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), when with the energy reform approved last six years they were destined for private companies.

Coincident, Gabriel Atin Videgain, economic and financial manager of Aernnova, a Spanish aeronautical company installed in Querétaro in 2009, said that the permanence of said firm in Mexico is assured.

“We are not going to leave but for the moment we do not have more investments planned for extensions. We are looking forward to seeing what happens to our customers because there is uncertainty worldwide, not only in Mexico, ”he said.