With priority given to the combined cycle (gas) which is equivalent to 58.9 percent of electricity generation for 2024-2030, the Mexico Plan contemplates increasing the generation of clean energy from 22.5 percent in 2024 to 37.8 percent in 2030, as well as eliminating the use of coal.
The Government of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo detailed in the Mexico Plan 2024-2030 how it envisions the energy transition with an increase in electricity generation through photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy, as well as the cancellation of the use of coal, a fossil that has led to the violation of labor and environmental rights.
“The displacement of energy generation by sources such as coal is the clearest manifestation of this administration’s commitment to combating climate change,” said energy analyst Arturo Carranza.
During the presentation of the Mexico Plan, President Sheinbaum detailed for the first time the percentages of each source that the CFE will use for electricity generation during her six-year term.
“The Energy Plan is a very elaborate plan that we will present very soon, where we will increase the generation capacity from 356 TWh to 413 TWh (terawatt hours), part with gas, another part with renewable energy, significantly increasing solar and wind, but having support. The CFE’s mission in generation and transmission is clear. There are 145 transmission projects in the six-year term,” he said on Monday.
In this energy transition plan towards 2030, the Obradorista policy of at least 54 percent of energy being generated by the State (CFE) and the remaining 46 percent by private initiative is still considered. The Federal Electricity Commission is headed by Emilia Calleja Alor, former general director of CFE Generación I with a career of more than 20 years in the CFE.
With priority on the combined cycle (gas) that is equivalent to 58.9 percent of electricity generation, the plan contemplates increasing generation of clean energy from 22.5 percent (80.0 TWh) in 2024 to 37.8 percent (155.6 TWh) in 2030, of which 33.5 percent will be renewable and 4.3 percent clean (biomass, nuclear, cogeneration) as follows:
–Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy from 5.2 to 8.3 percent
–Wind energy: from 5.8 to 12.9 percent
–Hydroelectric energy: from 5.9 to 7.5 percent
–Geothermal energy: from 1 to 1.1 percent
“To achieve adding more MW of renewable energy to the system, it will be necessary to have what the authorities have called ‘impeccable planning’, which allows defining the best places to install power plants and the best options to resolve congestion in the transmission of electricity,” said energy analyst Arturo Carranza.
The plan also eliminates coal-fired power generation: coal-fired power from 3.6 percent in 2024 to 0 percent in 2030.
The report “Red Coal in Coahuila: Here the Silence Ends,” published by the Heinrich Böell Mexico Foundation in 2018, shows the human cost (unsafe working conditions without social security, thousands of deaths, widows and orphans) and also the environmental cost (untreated waste, contaminated water) that this mining activity has caused for years.
At the time, the then director of the CFE Manuel Bartlett, with the support of Senator and coal businessman Armando Guadiana Tijerina, made official the purchase by direct award of 2 million tons of coal with 60 private extractors from Sabinas, Coahuila, for more than two billion pesos for 2020 and 2021. During his appearance before the Chamber of Deputies, he argued that it was under principles of zero corruption and coyoteism, and that they were not against renewable energies, but against subsidizing them, which is why they seek the “repowering of the country’s hydraulic energies.”
Coal extraction in Coahuila is dominated by caciques who, in order to avoid minimum safety processes, carry on their shoulders more than 3 thousand deaths in 320 events since 1883 or environmental devastation, reports the document “Red Coal.” The list includes former mayors and a former head of Petróleos Mexicanos (2000-2002), Rogelio Montemayor.
More development hubs
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced 100 new industrial parks with 12 new polygons in key sectors such as semiconductors and electromobility as part of the Mexico Plan.
These polygons for producing semiconductors are the Border Strip in Nuevo Laredo, Plan Sonora, and Puerto Lázaro Cárdenas, whose goal is to “reduce dependency by 10 percent and develop local suppliers of sensors, actuators, intelligent controllers and systems and components for electric vehicles, including batteries.”
In particular, the project for a semiconductor plant in Jalisco is being proposed.
As for electromobility, these are polygons in the Border Strip in Nuevo Laredo, the Binational Park Piedras Negras, Plan Sonora, Bajío-Celaya, Puerto Lázaro Cárdenas, Puebla. As a preview, there is the recently presented project of Olinia, the first 100 percent Mexican electric car.
The goal is to “increase national content by 15% through the substitution of vehicle imports, through the substitution of imports of electronic components for vehicles, the expansion of production of aluminum auto parts and the development of production of battery cells for electric vehicles.”
