Mexico’s Sonora state plans 6 new solar plants

Mexico’s Sonora state is looking to install six solar plants with combined 500MW capacity for its largest cities. 

The initiative will be part of the US$48bn Plan Sonora sustainable energy strategy that includes a 1GW solar park in Puerto Peñasco. 

It will be a “regional distribution in such a way that practically each of the most important cities in the state will have a solar energy plant. We are thinking about a distribution of half a gigawatt, 500 megawatts, which would allow us to install six additional plants,” governor Alfonso Durazo said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Ahead of his meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on Thursday, Durazo said he would bring good news to López Obrador regarding the progress of Plan Sonora. 

“We are advancing with the acquisition of land where [the first] three solar energy plants that we are planning will be installed,” he said.

The Sonora Plan involves four main pillars. 

These are energy generation at the US$1.6bn Puerto Peñasco solar plant, the production of lithium by state-owned company LitioMX, building the US$14bn Saguaro Energía natural gas liquefaction hub and the modernization of logistics infrastructure such as highways, the Guaymas port and Ciudad Obregón airport.

Regarding the LNG project, Durazo said his administration obtained the construction permit for the pipeline that will bring natural gas from Texas to the plant. 

“A few days ago, they gave us permission to build the gas pipeline that comes from Texas, crosses Chihuahua and the state of Sonora, with an extension of around 800km,” he said.