The Energy Regulation and Markets Review - Stikeman Elliott

iii
Market developments
Mexico
It is considered that when the offer of renewable energy sources reaches a 10 per cent of
total availability, there will be basis for the creation of a market.
V
RENEWABLE ENERGY AND CONSERVATION
i
Development of renewable energy
Along with the enactment of the Renewable Energy Law in 2008, in recent years Mexican
federal and local governments have developed a wide variety of programmes and benefits
related to the development of renewable energy.
The Renewable Energy Law seeks to foster programmes, activities and projects
aimed at achieving a larger use of renewable energy sources and clean technologies. It
also affords an important right to renewable self-supply energy producers of less than
0.5MW to have unrestricted access to the energy bank of CFE, thereby being able to
make ‘deposits’ and ‘recoveries’ of the electricity produced for the purpose of promoting
investment in this area.
This energy bank was created in 2001 by the CRE when it realised that any
renewable energy production project was not capable of being developed if no system
existed to guarantee energy producers, especially self-suppliers; they can can ‘deposit’
their energy in a system that will allow them to ‘recover’ it when their production does
not satisfy their demand.
Another important programme to promote investment by private companies
in renewable energies is, at the federal level, accelerated tax deductions for companies
investing in equipment employing solar energy or generally using clean technologies.
Similarly, the Mexican federal government has implemented different types
of economic benefit to livestock farmers in order to reuse organic waste produced by
animals to produce energy by means of the installation of biodigesters on the farms;
likewise, there have been efforts to produce energy based on all waste collected from
deposits.
In recent years the federal government determined that within Mexico there was
potential for the production of energy by wind farms equal to 11,000MW; consequently,
it instructed the CFE to plan the installation of new wind farms to guarantee the energy
supply in the south east and north west of Mexico. These projects (Rumorosa I, II and
III, located at Baja California; Oaxaca I, II, III and IV, Sureste I, II, III and IV and La
Venta III, all located at Oaxaca) will jointly generate 1,216MW. Some of these projects
have been supported with contributions from the World Bank not only of financing
but of technical assistance for the development of projects and businesses involving
renewable and green energy.
ii Energy efficiency and conservation
Several programmes have been created by the Mexican government aimed at obtaining
a better and more efficient use of energy. Of these, the ones that have had the greatest
impact on energy savings are those aimed at reducing household electricity consumption.
Household consumption represents between the 25 per cent and 27 per cent of the total
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