Mexico's thermo plans for Baja California Sur rile local opposition

The latest moves to solve the energy shortage in Mexico’s Baja California Sur (BCS) state in efforts led by state-owned power utility CFE are meeting stiff opposition from both local business groups and clean energy organizations who claim the government and the company continue to disregard the climate crisis and the local demand for green power. 

The sun-drenched deserts and beaches of BCS present an enormous potential for solar and wind energy generation, an energy strategy that has strong support from the peninsular state’s strong and growing tourism industry, especially as a leader in the country for ecotourism. 

Rather than supporting this advantage, in a visit to BCS on Friday, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced that combined cycle plants in the pipeline for the power outage-plagued state and the Yucatán Peninsula would be fired by natural gas as part of a broader re-focus on gas as a cleaner fuel.

But opposition groups are not onboard.

“Continuing to depend on fossil fuels for power generation sends us in the opposite direction regarding the efforts of the international community in the face of the climate crisis, which are oriented towards transit to low carbon economies,” read a joint statement from environmental law center (CEMDA) and clean air and energy organization (CERCA), and citizen action group Como Vamos La Paz.

“The federal government knows the great potential we have in the state of Baja California Sur to develop renewable energy projects and achieve the energy transition by investing only in cutting-edge technology that is flexible towards this transition. Let's take advantage of not being connected to the national network, and let's position ourselves as a laboratory for best practices, exemplary for the rest of the country,” said Lucía Frausto, director of Como Vamos La Paz.

Not onboard barge plan

A second issue emerged last week after CFE confirmed plans to purchase a used barge that would serve as a floating, temporary power generation solution (capable of burning fuel or gas) during the upcoming summer months, specifically to help avoid a repeat of the repeated and often long-lasting blackouts that struck the region last year during peak annual heat in June, July and August.

A report in local daily Reforma on Monday alleges that CFE responded to local opposition and agreed on Friday to commit to burning only natural gas with the barge and not fuel oil, but that AMLO finally gave in over the weekend and it appears the barge project is off for now. 

But the barge plan, in fact, hit quite a sore spot with local businesses, drawing an official protest from Lilzi Orcí Fregoso, executive president of Los Cabos hotel association (Ahloscabos), who added that the planned expenditure made on the barge would be better used to fund renewables projects.

The CEMDA joint statement condemned both the barge project and the plans to rely on natural gas thermoelectric generation, “The promotion of projects such as the barge not only contravenes the objectives of [Mexico’s own energy transition and climate change legislation], but would lead Mexico to a breach of the Paris Agreement, which binds it to reduce its GHG emissions by 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2050.”

BCS pollution on the rise

The organizations, in the statement, acknowledged an expected 12% increase in power demand this summer, “at least 82MW more than the current generating capacity of the plants in the region.”

They added, however, that the plans of the government and CFE to boost supply, as they are now, would run roughshod of Mexico’s commitments as a signatory to greenhouse gases mitigation commitments within the framework of the UN climate change convention (UNFCCC), which includes short-term reduction frameworks.

The statement noted that the most recent testing of pollutant levels in BCS show increases in sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone and PM10 (fine) and PM 2.5 (ultrafine) particulates, as well as higher levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and soot – the latter a primary contributor to the greenhouse effect.

Anti-renewables agenda

The AMLO administration and CFE have made several overtures in recent months to squeeze private renewables out of the generation market to the chagrin of solar and wind companies working to launch and/or expand in Mexico.

These overtures include a proposed regulation last week to gradually phase out self-supply and co-generation contracts, as well as a leaked document from CFE in December that called for increasing transmission costs, putting limits on interconnection of solar and wind power, canceling self-supply contracts and undercutting the benefits of clean energy certificates.

It would appear, now, that local environmental groups are joining with the private renewables sector in vocally opposing the emerging anti-renewables agenda.

“We are at a defining moment for Baja California Sur, where these decisions can definitively change its future. In the face of the global climate crisis, the increase in temperature will cause greater energy demand, especially in hot regions such as BCS,” said Gustavo Alanis Ortega, head of CEMDA.

This reality, he continued, “Forces us to look for sustainable, clean, environmentally friendly solutions that contribute to improve air quality and mitigate greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions, for the benefit of South Californians, Mexico and the planet.”

Photo: A screenshot of a CFE thermo plant in BCS and its pollution from a 2018 video provided by local news outlet EntereteBCS.