• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Don’t Attend COP 28 Unless You’re There to Help, Figueres Tells Oil and Gas September 21, 2023
Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote September 20, 2023
Indoor Heat Leaves Canadians Unsafe with ‘No Escape’, CBC Investigation Finds September 20, 2023
Agrivoltaics a Win-Win for Farmers, Communities, Solar Developers, and Alberta’s UCP September 20, 2023
‘Beginning of the End’ for Oil and Gas as IEA Predicts Pre-2030 Peak September 19, 2023
Next
Prev

Build That (Solar) Wall, Mr. Trump!

January 4, 2017
Reading time: 2 minutes

theregeneration/Flickr

theregeneration/Flickr

 
theregeneration/Flickr
theregeneration/Flickr

Two prominent Mexican academics have a response to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along America’s southern border: Bring it on! But make it solar.

Homero Aridjis, a former Mexican ambassador to UNESCO, and James Ramey, a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers based at its largest university in Mexico City, argue on the Huffington Post that a wall of solar panels running just south of the U.S. border would provide a triple win: tighter frontier security, energy export sales for Mexico, and clean, cheap power for major American centres from California to Texas.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“Sunlight in the northern deserts of Mexico is more intense than in the U.S. Southwest,” the pair argue, “because of the lower latitude and more favourable cloud patterns. And construction and maintenance costs for solar plants in Mexico are substantially lower. Such plants along the Mexican side of the border could power cities on both sides faster and more cheaply than similar arrays built north of the border.”

The pair envisions new high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) interconnections to deliver Mexican-generated power to cities like San Diego, Tijuana, Tucson, Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, and Monterrey. They calculate that “a strip of [solar] arrays one-third the width of a football field south of the entire U.S.-Mexico border, with a wide berth allowed for populated areas and rugged terrain,” would produce “sufficient energy to also supply Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Dallas, and Houston.”

And, they add, “since solar plants use security measures to keep intruders out, the solar border would serve as a de facto virtual fence, reducing porousness of the border while producing major economic, environmental, and security benefits on both sides.”

In Mexico, meanwhile, “the solar border would create a New Deal-like source of high-tech construction and technology jobs all along the border, which could absorb a significant number of would-be migrant workers on their way to cross into the U.S. illegally.” The solar output would also help Mexico reach its goal of achieving 35% renewable electricity generation by 2024.

While the idea may have a far-fetched air, Mexico is actively deregulating and restructuring its former state electricity monopoly to usher in what it hopes will be a new era of more competitive, innovative electrical supply. “We are past the point of return,” César Emiliano Hernández Ochoa, undersecretary of electricity for the Mexican Ministry of Energy, said at a recent symposium covered by Power magazine. “The reforms are well under way, and the country is seeing some unprecedented changes.”

Some 26% of Mexico’s electricity currently comes from clean generation, Hernández Ochoa, said. Of the rest, nearly 36% is combined cycle natural gas, 20% fuel oil and gas steam, and 9% coal. However, low-cost solar has won as much as 74% of Mexico’s recent supply auctions, followed closely by wind power.

And “one area of focus,” Power magazine writes, “continues to be cross-border interconnections with the U.S.” Cross-border power sales now occur mainly into California and Texas, but Hernández Ochoa’s agency “projects that new interconnections of 6,000 MW could produce an annual net savings of between $125 million to $300 million.”



in Climate & Society, Demand & Distribution, Energy Politics, Heat & Power, International Security & War, Jobs & Training, Jurisdictions, Renewable Energy, Solar, South & Central America, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

UN Climate Change/flickr
COP Conferences

BREAKING: Don’t Attend COP 28 Unless You’re There to Help, Figueres Tells Oil and Gas

September 21, 2023
203
Jon Sullivan/flickr
Ontario

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
517
Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels
Heat & Power

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
66

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

UN Climate Change/flickr

BREAKING: Don’t Attend COP 28 Unless You’re There to Help, Figueres Tells Oil and Gas

September 21, 2023
203
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
517
Asurnipal/wikimedia commons

Agrivoltaics a Win-Win for Farmers, Communities, Solar Developers, and Alberta’s UCP

September 20, 2023
108
Cullen328/wikimedia commons

Manufactured Housing Could Dent the Affordable Housing Crunch with Energy-Efficient Designs

September 20, 2023
81
Mr Renewables/Wikipedia

Californians Fight for New Community Solar Plan

September 20, 2023
80
Kristoferb/Wikimedia Commons

Canadians Could Save $10.4B, Cut Climate Pollution by Replacing Central Air with Heat Pumps

August 28, 2023
669

Recent Posts

Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
66
Jeremy Bezanger/Unsplash

Indoor Heat Leaves Canadians Unsafe with ‘No Escape’, CBC Investigation Finds

September 20, 2023
32
Wesley Fryer/flickr

Smart Thermostats Boost Grid Stability Amid Intense Heat

September 20, 2023
31
Plug'n Drive/Wikimedia Commons

Rural Carshares Ensure EV Push Leaves No One Behind

September 20, 2023
24
/Piqusels

‘Beginning of the End’ for Oil and Gas as IEA Predicts Pre-2030 Peak

September 19, 2023
405
Clean Creatives

‘Turning Point’ for PR Industry as Clean Creatives Targets Fossil Industry Contracts

September 19, 2023
256
Next Post

Investor waves goodbye to palm oil

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}