Snapshot: Permitting for Mexican renewable energy projects

At least 11 Mexican non-conventional renewable projects with combined capacity of nearly 1.5GW were seeking a generation permit from CRE as of July 10, the energy regulator said. 

Of those, three have since received a permit and are currently looking to begin construction. The permit for one, however, was rejected, according to data released by the regulator through a transparency request at the end of August.

Of the 11, seven are for solar parks with a combined 313MW in the states of Nuevo León, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Guerrero, while the other four are for wind farms with a combined capacity of 1.1GW in the states of Baja California, Campeche and Yucatán. 

In its July 20 session, the regulator approved generation permits for Aligntech Mexico, Ecoplexus and Energía Sierra Juárez, but rejected one for CGS Solarmex I. 

In the case of Energía Sierra Juárez, a subsidiary of Sempra Infrastructure, it received the green light from the environment ministry last month to build its 330MW Cimarrón wind farm, which will be in Tecate municipality close to the US border. It will focus on exporting power to the US through Baja California's connection with the California Independent System Operator (ISO).

NCRE generation permit requests presented as of July 10

Company	Type	State	MW	Status
Desarrollo Pich	Wind	Campeche	400.5	Pending approval since 2022
Energía Sierra Juárez	Wind	Baja California	330	Approved on July 20
Wind Pro	Wind	Baja California	320.4	Pending approval since 2022
Eólica Dzilam	Wind	Yucatán	120	Pending approval since 2022
Ecoplexus	Solar	Guanajuato	165	Approved on July 20
CGS Solarmex I	Solar	Zacatecas	89	Rejected on July 20
Next Energy de México	Solar	Nuevo León	22.4	Pending approval since 2021
GCC Solar Samalayuca	Solar	Chihuahua	22	Pending approval since 2021
Minera Media Luna	Solar	Guerrero	8.448	Pending approval since 2023
Ingersoll-Rand Manufactura	Solar	Nuevo León	5.3125	Pending approval since 2023
Aligntech de México	Solar	Chihuahua	1.68	Approved on July 20

Source: CRE

The Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration has come in for criticism for being slow to process permit requests for private sector renewables projects.