México

Wind Energy in México


mexico.jpgDue to the policies and legal framework of México’s energy reform and wind power market evolution, by the end of June 2017 the country had added 415.22 MW of new wind power to the national electricity grid, bringing the total capacity to 3,942 MW. This represents about 5.32% of total installed capacity.

México’s R&D focus is on small and medium-size turbines. These efforts range from development of a 1.2-MW scale wind turbine to installation and testing of a 2-MW horizontal wind turbine with a 100-m concrete tower, as well as innovations in automatized blade manufacturing, virtual reality for O&M staff training, and smart blade concepts for load control.

To learn more about wind energy in México, please review their country chapter in the IEA Wind TCP 2017 Annual Report.

National Targets


México’s wind power industry aims to install 12.8 GW of wind power capacity by the end of 2020, and 15 GW by the end of 2022. Despite the fact that auction mechanisms allow the development of wind power at competitive prices, data shows that reaching these targets may present a challenge.

Clean energy targets, including renewables, for total electricity generation in México are 25% by 2018, 30% by 2021, 35% by 2024, 37.5% by 2040, and 50% by 2050. The Energy Transition Law and the Electricity Law provide the legal framework to accelerate clean energy deployment.

Operational Details


Previously, two long-term energy auctions proved to be an effective instrument to increase penetration of wind energy. Wind power accounted for 25.7% (2,718 MW) of the total power capacity contracted via the auctions; these projects will be installed between 2017-2019.

According to the 2018 Report for Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment, México’s market experienced the highest percent growth of new investments in renewable energies in 2017. New investments totaled 3.3 billion USD (2.75 billion EUR)–an 810% increase in funding from 2016 [5].

National R,D&D Priorities & Budget


The Technology Roadmap, published in 2017, identified technological challenges and barriers that México faces in reaching the 2030 goal for the sustainable use of land-based wind energy. The report also identified enabling and strategic actions that would promote timely incorporation of technological capabilities in order to reach the 2030 installed capacity goal.

In the short term, greater opportunities to implement technological solutions for the operation and maintenance of wind turbines are expected to increase industry profitability. In the medium and long term, it will be necessary to respond to technological challenges associated with the storage of energy and the expansion of electricity transmission and the distribution grid. By the end of 2017, the Energy Sustainability Fund (FSE) had supported the wind energy CEMIE with a total of 2.012 million USD (1.677 million EUR).