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Mexico Embraces Gas, Scorns Renewable Energy — Global Issues


The Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico is rich in solar and wind energy, but relies on fossil fuels to generate electricity.  The photo shows a state-owned CFE wind turbine next to part of the power grid between Cancún and Puerto Morelos, in the state of Quintana Roo.  CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS
The Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico is rich in solar and wind energy, but relies on fossil fuels to generate electricity. The photo shows a state-owned CFE wind turbine next to part of the power grid between Cancún and Puerto Morelos, in the state of Quintana Roo. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS
  • by Emilio Godoy (mérida, mexico)
  • Joint press service

The 20kg cooking gas cylinder has a lifespan of three to four months, and by using less she has saved money, as prices have increased in recent months. The electricity in her home comes from plants that are burned with mostly methane, which is 86 times more capable of absorbing heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, making it dangerous for the climate.

An environmental activist and mother of one child, Bracamontes lives in a middle-class neighborhood where other families face a similar situation to hers over gas.

The Yucatán Peninsula in the southeast, home to 5.1 million people, contributes nearly 5% of Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP), thanks to agriculture, tourism and services.

Comprising the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán, of which Mérida is the capital, Yucatán receives large amounts of sun and wind but depends on gas to meet its electricity needs.

Tied to the gas

Silently, this fuel is spreading across the peninsula, which is particularly vulnerable to droughts, severe storms and rising sea levels – symptoms of the climate crisis, one of The main cause is burning fossil fuels.

The peninsula receives gas through Mayakán . pipeline, a 780 km pipeline owned by the Italian company Engie. The gas is pumped in from Ciudad Pemex, in the state of Tabasco, which borders the western part of the peninsula, and the pipeline has been in operation since 1999.

In 2020, Cuxtal I Expansion is also already operational, with a 16-kilometer pipeline connecting to the Cactus Gas Processing Complex in the state of Chiapas, in the southern part of the peninsula.

Governments Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) buy gas from state-owned oil and gas corporation Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to deliver it to the Lerma thermal power plants in Campeche, Valladolid and Mérida II in the Yucatán, as well as the private combined cycle plants Mérida III and Valladolid III, which operate on gas and steam.

The peninsula has a output power 2455 megawatts (MW), of which combined cycle thermal contributes 1463, turbogas 368, conventional heat 314, wind 244, solar 50 and internal combustion 14, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL) of the United States government.

According to official Mexican data, five solar and wind farms is operating in the state of Yucatán alone. But communities opposed to renewable initiatives have manage to block at least six other projects of this type, due to their environmental impact and failure to engage in consultation with local indigenous populations.

In December, the state of Yucatán was the sixth out of 32 Mexican states with the highest number of contracts for the installation of residential solar panels below 0.5 MW, with 12,458 producing a total of 89 MW. Quintana Roo has 3969 producing 27 MW, while Campeche is the state with the least, with 1515 producing 11 MW, according to the statistic from the official Energy Regulatory Commission.

The national total amounted to 270,506 producing 2,031 MW.

In the entire peninsula, CFE requires about 340 million cubic feet of gas per day for their plants in the region, while the total demand is about 500 million, including 160 million for industry and commerce. , according to the Federation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism.

Running upstream on fossil fuels

Pablo Ramírez, Energy and Climate Change expert with environmental watchdog Greenpeace Mexicoquestion the expansion of gas in the Yucatán and the rest of the country.

He told IPS from Mexico City: “The big issue is the direction of the energy sector. That’s not what the transition needs.

Mexico is the 12th largest oil producer in the world and the 17th largest gas producer. In terms of proven reserves, it ranks 20th in crude oil and 41st in natural gas, but the industry Its hydrocarbon industry is declining due to the scarcity of easily exploitable deposits.

In February, 75% of electricity generation was based on fossil fuels, followed by wind power (7.5%), hydroelectricity (7.0%), solar (4.94%), nuclear power nuclear (4.23%), geothermal (1.56%) and biomass (0.07 percent), according to NGO data Energy conversion observatory In Mexico.

In decline

Gas production has fallen in Latin America’s second-largest economy. In February 2020, according to official data, the total mining volume reached 4.93 billion cubic feet per day, and fell to 4.83 billion 12 months later and to 4.67 billion in February 2022.

This shortfall forced the country to import gas, especially from the United States, with a maximum of 904.6 million and a minimum of 640 million cubic feet every February for the past three years.

To spread over a territory of nearly two million square kilometers, a gas pipeline network has been laid in this country of 131 million people, with 27 public and private pipelines. In addition, construction of three other structures has been halted due to opposition from the communities they will run.

Gas recipients are 50 thermal power plants, combined cycle and gas turbines, both state-owned and private. In addition, six other combined cycle plants, using two heat sources, gas and steam, are under construction.

This shows how Mexico has attached itself to gas, despite the effects of the climate and the difficulties of giving it up in the future, as this infrastructure is decades old. It also raises questions regarding the increase in international gas prices, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Transition paused

In Mexico, the energy transition has been crippled since 2019 due to government policies of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which favor fossil fuels and hydroelectric plants, to the detriment of new clean energy.

In September 2021, López Obrador present a legal proposal Repealing the 2013 reforms opened the power sector to private domestic and foreign participation, allowing the public sector to continue to guide strategic planning in the sector.

The changes are expected to favor CFE and support gas as a preeminent power source.

At the national level, in January, CFE directly awarded contracts to build six combined cycle plants that will be operational by 2024, providing a total of 4,000 MW, with an investment of $3.4 billion. .

In the case of the Yucatán peninsula, CFE will require 200 million cubic feet of gas per day for two new combined cycle plants in Mérida and Valladolid, with a capacity of 1519 MW, considering the projected annual growth in demand. from 3.2 to 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the peninsula is squandering available renewable resources.

US-based NREL reports that Campeche has a solar potential of 727,502 MW and wind energy of 1599 MW; Yucatán, 757,820 and 6125 respectively; and Quintana Roo, 168,029 and 2035.

For the peninsula, NREL offers to hold regional clean energy auctions based on competitive renewable energy sites, introduce energy efficiency programs for government buildings and small businesses, design energy procurement mechanisms for government buildings and encourage the deployment of renewable energy in local communities.

Bracamontes, environmentalist Mérida and representative of the global youth movement Fridays for Mexico Future in Yucatán, criticized the potential waste of renewable energy.

She said: “There are many alternative solutions to take advantage of the sun, wind and solid waste that the state has not yet solved. If we are still married thinking that fossil fuels are the only way, we are wrong. Sunshine is free. “

Local residents also face energy instability under the current energy scheme. For example, the neighborhood where Bracamontes lives, to the west of Mérida, suffered three short blackouts in a week.

Like other cities on the peninsula, Mérida has high electricity prices, even with public subsidies, and unstable electricity generation.

Greenpeace’s Ramírez says the winners of the anti-electricity reform are Pemex and the gas companies.

“The possibility of switching to renewable sources and distributed power generation has been eliminated,” he said. equation. “

© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service



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