Massive food market in Mexico City poised to harness sunshine for power

Alchimie SA

28/03/2022 13:00

By Valentine Hilaire
    MEXICO CITY, March 28 (Reuters) - A sprawling fruit and
vegetable market in Mexico's capital wants to spark a greener
future as the world's biggest urban solar farm, with thousands
of photovoltaic panels set to be installed this year on the
seemingly endless roofs of its buildings.
    The 400 million peso ($19.9 million) roof-top solar project
will cover a chaotic wholesale market that serves half a million
customers daily, extending over a land equivalent to about 400
football fields. 
    Once online later this year, the Central de Abasto market's
roofs will power some 18 megawatts of generating capacity,
according to Fadlala Akabani, the capital's economic development
minister, or enough to supply around 14,000 homes.
    The project marks a rare green initiative during the
government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has
mostly sought to prioritize fossil fuel production and power
generation via two state-run energy giants - national oil
company Pemex and electricity utility CFE.
    The CFE is, however, designing the market solar installation
and will later operate it.
    During his first three years in office, Lopez Obrador has
quarreled with private firms that have invested heavily in
renewable power in Mexico, even pushing a reform that would
cancel many existing private power projects.
    "The development of large-scale (solar) projects has been on
hold for over a year," said Javier Romero of solar energy
association ANES, pointing to heightened political risk and
legal limbo seen undermining would-be private generators.
    "Who is going to invest without guarantees?"
    Solar only contributed about 5% of Mexican power generation
last year, according to industry data. 
    But Mexican solar generation in percentage terms is greater
than in the United States, where it contributed almost 3% last
year, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
showed.
    While the EIA forecasts that U.S. solar will grow to a fifth
of the country's electricity by 2050, Mexico's state-run CFE
declined to provide its own estimate.
    "It's not about percentages, but instead to plan out our
energy transition," CFE spokesman Luis Bravo told Reuters.
    
    'WOEFULLY INADEQUATE'
    Mexico's past governments have pledged to reach 35% clean
energy by 2024, up from 29% currently anchored largely by the
CFE's hydroelectric plants and private wind farms. But hitting
that target is seen by sector experts as all but impossible
given current trends.
    Mexico City's wholesale market constitutes one bright spot.
    The market is home to around 10,000 booths that mostly sell
fruits, vegetables and meat, one of them operated by Arturo
Mesa, whose stall was covered by mountains of apples and lettuce
on a recent visit.
    Mesa hopes new solar panels can cut his power bill.
    "I pay 5,000 pesos ($249) every month. That's too much," he
said.
    Around 36,000 panels are set to blanket building roofs and
ultimately generate much more power than the market consumes,
with the excess electricity likely made available to other
users, said Jose Alberto Valdes, a top energy official with the
city's government.
    Valdes added that officials aim to equip additional market
rooftops with solar panels, but provided no further details.
    CFE's Bravo said Lopez Obrador also wants to boost solar
power, and pointed to the company's industrial-scale $1.6
billion photovoltaic project planned for northern Mexico's
Sonora state. 
    The facility is expected to cover 2,000 hectares of sunbaked
desert, and feature a 1,000-megawwat annual generating capacity.
    But it's not expected to come online until 2028.
    The solar association's Romero argues that the electricity
generation projects in Sonora and Mexico City are woefully
inadequate given Mexico's potential.
    "It's peanuts," he said. "These are not figures to brag
about."
($1 = 20.0961 Mexican pesos)

 (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by David Alire Garcia
and Alistair Bell)
 ((Valentine.Hilaire@thomsonreuters.com;))