Policies impact wind energy

During the past year, the installed capacity of wind farms for electricity generation slowed down sharply in the country due to the policies of the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, warned businessmen from this sector.

At a national level, they explained, capacity grew by just 2.2 percent in 2022, a rate that contrasts with the 7.1 percent in 2021 and the average annual rate of 24.7 percent in the last 12 years.

The deceleration, they explained, responds to regulatory changes that affected private producers of clean energies in order to benefit state-owned companies, CFE and Pemex, which consume fossil fuels and therefore consume more pollutants.

"The current (federal) Administration stopped the development of long-term (electricity) auctions, which at the time involved investments of 3.5 billion dollars," says the Nuevo León Energy Cluster in a report citing information from the Mexican Wind Energy Association (AMDEE).

"2022 will go down in history as a year of little wind growth, and Nuevo León will not be the exception," the analysis states.

These obstacles come at a time when investors are demanding more and more renewable energies from Mexico.

REFORMA published on Friday that Germany, through its Ambassador to Mexico, Wolfgang Dold, warned that its companies require green energy alternatives, especially because by 2030 they will have to meet the requirements of the U.S. market.

Roberto Mercado, commercial director of Epscon, an energy procurement consultant, said that the current government has not given importance to clean energy because it is trying to strengthen state-owned companies.

"Since the beginning of this six-year term," Mercado exemplified, "they indefinitely suspended the fourth electric energy auction, even when the last one (held) imposed a record price."

In 2018, it was expected that by 2024 the Country would reach 16 thousand MW in installed capacity, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

"The turn of the current Federal Administration towards the greater use of fossil fuels and hydraulic energy," the Nuevo Leon Cluster pointed out, "caused the projection to be cut to only 9 thousand MW for that year."

The AMDEE revealed that in 2022 there was an installed capacity of 7,312 megawatts (MW) in the country.

GROWTH STIFLED

The current federal government has hindered wind power generation, sinking its growth to single digits.

(% growth of installed wind power capacity)

2013 31

2014 38

2018 24

2020 9

2022 2%

SOURCE: Prepared by REFORMA with AMDEE data.