NREL Identifies Abundant Renewable Energy Resources as Key to Mexico’s Clean Energy Ambitions

Source: | · T&D WORLD · | April 13, 2022

Mexico is replete with solar and wind resources and has remaining untapped potential in geothermal and hydropower.

Source: T&D World

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released an in-depth report on the potential for clean energy development in Mexico. Mexico is replete with solar and wind resources and has remaining untapped potential in geothermal and hydropower.

NREL’s Mexico Clean Energy Report concludes that, in light of this potential and the low cost of renewable energy generation, Mexico is ideally poised to become a clean energy powerhouse. According to the report, rapid growth in renewable energy deployment could enable Mexico to achieve its 35% clean energy generation goal by 2024, generate high levels of investment, increase energy access, reduce costs to consumers, and—together with other technical measures—improve the reliability and resilience of Mexico’s power system.

“Mexico can be a clean energy powerhouse,” said NREL Laboratory Director Martin Keller, “and a vital part of maintaining North America’s competitive edge around the world. Realizing this potential will require energy policies that facilitate private investment and support our joint efforts on clean energy, climate, and supply chains.”

Among the key findings of the report:

• Mexico’s large and diverse renewable energy resource base could support significant growth in clean generation capacity. National technical potential includes 24,918 GW of solar photovoltaics, 3,669 GW of wind, 2.5 GW of conventional geothermal, and 1.2 GW of additional capacity from existing hydropower facilities—all combined, enough to meet the country’s electricity needs a hundred times over.