MEXICO, Might 27 (IPS) – Researcher Edilso Reguera and his workforce started finding out electrical battery manufacturing in 2016, however in 2023, they ramped up efforts to develop a lithium-based prototype for bikes.
Commissioned by the Mexico Metropolis authorities in 2022, “we developed the battery from scratch. We’re probably the most superior analysis group within the nation. We examined it on bikes, and it really works nicely,” Reguera defined to IPS in his small workplace. He’s an educational on the Heart for Analysis in Utilized Science and Superior Know-how Cicata, a part of the Nationwide Polytechnic Institute, situated within the northern a part of the capital.
The analysis started with funding from the town authorities, and Cicata took cost of designing, producing, and testing the capacitor batteries.
Within the laboratory, the place round 40 college students and researchers collaborate, employees analyze supplies and look at substances utilizing gear with near-unpronounceable names, collectively price hundreds of {dollars}.
The Mexican authorities plans to advertise power storage in renewable vegetation and electromobility, making initiatives like Cicata’s essential.
“A battery is a storage system, so it really works nicely for a number of functions,” mentioned Reguera, who additionally heads the Nationwide Laboratory for Power Conversion and Storage beneath the newly created Ministry of Science, Humanities, Know-how, and Innovation.
However this imaginative and prescient stays aspirational in Mexico, the place solely two photovoltaic initiatives presently embody storage techniques. Whereas the federal government has formidable plans to spice up the sector, particulars stay unclear.
Regardless of the state-owned Federal Electrical energy Fee (CFE) having storage targets since 2004, solely two non-public initiatives presently have such techniques.
One is the Aura Photo voltaic III photovoltaic plant, owned by Mexican firm Gauss Energía, which has been working since 2018 in La Paz, the capital of the northwestern state of Baja California Sur. It has a era capability of 32 megawatts (MW) and a storage capability of 10.5 MW.
The opposite is the La Toba photo voltaic park, owned by U.S.-based Invenergy, operational since 2022, additionally in Baja California Sur, with 35 MW of era and 20 MW of storage.
This method permits for financial savings in power consumption and prices, in addition to backup for the ability grid, which is presently beneath pressure on account of inadequate era and upkeep.
Moreover, since wind doesn’t blow continually and daylight is just out there through the day, renewable power requires storage capability to compensate for variability and guarantee a secure provide.
Andrés Flores, power coverage director on the non-governmental Iniciativa Climática de México, highlighted the urgency of the problem.
“We’re in a high-risk scenario, closely depending on gasoline for era. As a result of local weather components, we’re already experiencing blackouts,” the skilled advised IPS.
He defined that Mexico has restricted era capability and low energy reserves, which means “there’s a have to put money into storage to attenuate these dangers, enhance operational flexibility, and combine extra renewables within the close to future.”
Flores authored the examine Power Storage in Mexico: Evaluation and Coverage Proposals, revealed in January, which recognized key challenges, together with a 2-gigawatt deficit in operational reserves, restricted capability throughout peak consumption hours, and concentrated points throughout night and nighttime demand.
The examine additionally discovered little readability in power planning relating to the deployment of storage techniques.
Ambitions
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in workplace since October, offered the 2024-2030 Nationwide Electrical Sector Technique a month later, adopted in February by the Plan for Strengthening and Increasing the Nationwide Electrical System, that are interlinked.
The February plan goals to spice up the electrical energy sector by means of measures akin to including 574 MW throughout 5 photovoltaic vegetation with capacitor batteries, representing a public funding of US$ 223 million. These vegetation are anticipated to return on-line by 2027.
In the identical vein, the Federal Electrical energy Fee is advancing the bidding for section II of the Puerto Peñasco photovoltaic plant, situated within the namesake city within the northern state of Sonora. This section will add 300 MW of capability, backed by 10.3 MW in battery storage. The plant’s first section (120 MW) has been operational since 2023. As soon as accomplished in 2026, the total challenge will ship 1,000 MW at a price of US$1.6 billion.
For Karina Cuentas, a researcher on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico’s (UNAM) Heart for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, the lag in power storage stems from a scarcity of presidency help.
“We’re behind as a result of not sufficient funding is allotted to technological improvement. We’ve all of the instruments to make progress, nevertheless it’s very troublesome on account of a scarcity of sources. There’s enthusiasm as a result of the plan has been offered, together with the roadmap and situations to attain it,” she advised IPS from Ensenada, within the northwestern state of Baja California.
“The optimum storage answer for renewables is batteries,” she emphasised.
As president of the non-governmental Mexican Power Storage Community—a gaggle of round 200 specialists within the subject—Cuentas believes progress will rely on “the principles of the sport.”
A regulatory framework for power storage has been in impact since March, however its implementing rules might take as much as two years to finalize, doubtlessly delaying challenge improvement.
Moreover, critics argue that the regulation classifies storage backup as a part of energy era itself and imposes restrictive tips on its functions.
Mexico has an put in capability of 89,000 MW, and through the first quarter of this yr, practically 61% of electrical energy era trusted fossil gasoline, adopted by typical thermoelectric (6%), wind (practically 6%), hydroelectric (4.6%), photo voltaic photovoltaic (4.2%), coal-fired (3.3%), nuclear (3.2%), gasoline turbine (3.1%), and geothermal (1.2%).
Renewable power sources have an put in capability of over 33,000 MW however contribute solely 21% of the electrical energy. To the present combine, the federal government’s plan would add 21,893 MW to the nationwide power grid, aiming to extend clear power from the present 22.5% to 37.8%.
The electrical energy sector has suffered from the fossil gasoline dependency of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration (2018-2024), who stalled the power transition—a scenario his ally and successor, Sheinbaum, seeks to right.
Forgotten Potential
For over a decade, varied research have highlighted the potential of power storage techniques on this Latin American nation, house to 129 million folks and the area’s second-largest financial system after Brazil.
The Federal Electrical energy Fee recognized at the least 169 websites in 2017 with potential for pumped-storage hydropower, nevertheless it by no means invested on this technique, which is now troublesome to implement on account of present drought circumstances and inadequate reservoir ranges.
Civil society organizations estimate that storage capability may attain 500 MW for industrial initiatives and 18 MW for residential photovoltaic techniques by 2030.
The federal government’s Nationwide Electrical System Improvement Program for 2024-2038 outlines the deployment of seven gigawatts (GW) of storage techniques between in 2024-2028 and eight GW in 2028-2038, however with out specifying concrete initiatives or operational mechanisms.
The Worldwide Power Company (IEA), which represents main power customers, recommends incorporating storage into long-term power planning and incentivizing its deployment. To this finish, it suggests persevering with regulatory opinions, implementing insurance policies to advertise battery recycling, and adopting measures for the commerce of used power storage techniques.
The uncertainty surrounding power storage progress in Mexico is clear in locations like Cicata, the place consultants have referred to as for stronger help.
“Having home technological improvement brings energy, improves the financial system, and creates Mexican industrial corporations with out counting on overseas expertise. Technological improvement is a matter of nationwide safety,” mentioned researcher Reguera.
This yr, his priorities embody growing a sodium-based battery—safer and cheaper than lithium however with decrease power storage capability—and securing round three million {dollars} to construct a pilot plant able to assembling about 500 catalysts each day.
In the meantime, Cuentas, an power storage skilled, expressed hope that “mechanisms will probably be put in place to foster technological improvement within the nation. With a extra fashionable grid, variability wouldn’t trigger as a lot disruption—it ought to face up to renewable power fluctuations. It’s essential to have extra renewable era and a strengthened grid.”
Lastly, Flores, an power coverage specialist, proposed drafting a devoted storage program and roadmap.
“There must be readability of their plans. There are complementary choices, integrating storage with large-scale conventional and renewable turbines. For photo voltaic and wind power, having storage amenities could be preferrred,” he recommended.
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