Mexican scientists push major alternative energy research
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Mexico is ramping up its alternative energy research by seeking cooperation with foreign scientists based on a successful program run with the U.S. government aid agency.
"We have successful cooperation projects with the United States and Europe, and we are starting to have contacts with Chinese colleagues as well," Claudio Estrada, head of the Energy Investigation Center at the state-run National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told Xinhua. "We are sure we are going to have more in the future."
For the moment, Mexico has committed most prominently to wind power. The energy ministry has publicly committed to raising the proportion of energy produced from renewable energy to 27 percent from 23 percent at present, with the vast majority coming from wind power.
"There have been evaluations that measured Mexico's wind power potential at 5,000 megawatts, which could be extended to 10,000 megawatts," Estrada said, adding "some people are talking about as much at 30,000 to 50,000 megawatts."
According to Estrada, solar power might be the next to bear fruit.
The three major solar projects the center is currently working on are a heat concentrator, an organic waste cleaner and an intensified solar power generator.
"Of all the energy in the world, solar is the most abundant," Estrada said. "But there are also biomass and wave power with impressive potential which are yet to be developed."
The Mexican government is funding research at the Electricity Investigations Institute (IIE) and via the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the state-run power distribution monopoly.
Mexico has also linked up with Germany on a clean development mechanism and combined heat and power programs, but is still looking for a project that will match the success of a rural electrification program created with the help of the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID).
"The problem is that you don't just need to put equipment in place, you also need people to repair and supply parts to the generators," Estrada said. "There is a whole system that you have to create."
U.S. AID and the Shared Risk Fund (Firco), a state-run rural finance company owned by the Agriculture Department, created such a network and it was now fully owned by Firco, Estrada said. "The same thing is needed with all new energy sources," he said.
While the bulk of alternative energy technology had been imported into Mexico by European and U.S. companies, the nation had generated a small number of innovators and was hoping to do more, said Estrada, who cited the IIE's work in creating homegrown wind technology and Mexico City firm Fuerza Eolica as pioneers in this field.
