| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind Power News: Mexico
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Latin American land owners are fighting to keep power lines out
Gilson Denardin always hated the towering transmission lines crisscrossing his farm in northeastern Brazil. So when he caught wind of plans to put up two more sets of wires, he decided to put up a fight. “It’s awful,” said the owner of 7,400 acres of farmland in Brazil’s Northeast. “My land loses its value with so many power lines.” Denardin is leading a local movement to force power companies to pay farmers more for their trouble, and he’s not alone . . . Complete story »
Court orders halt to Juchitán wind farm
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a wind farm project in Oaxaca must be halted because the process to approve it violated the rights of the local indigenous community. Judges from Mexico’s highest court unanimously decided to grant an amparo, or injunction, to members of the Zapotec community in Juchitán on the grounds that they hadn’t been consulted or given their permission or authorization for the project to go ahead on their land. A district court in Salinas Cruz, Oaxaca . . . Complete story »
Planned Mexico wind farm sparks protests
Protesters marched to oppose a planned wind farm in Oaxaca over the weekend, the latest in a series of mobilizations against developments in the southwestern state that is Mexico’s wind power generation hub. Some 500 people from Unión Hidalgo marched Saturday to protest the planned Gunna Sicaru wind farm that firm Eléctricité de France (EDF) plans to build, according to local media reports. The coastal town and fishing community of Unión Hidalgo is inhabited by people of the indigenous Zapoteco . . . Complete story »
Wind energy blows up storm of controversy in Mexico
Cain Lopez looks tiny standing near the seven enormous wind turbines that tower over his farm in the Mexican village of La Ventosa. In this gusty rural region near the Pacific coast, the wind is so strong it sometimes flips over cars and even trailer trucks. Lopez always considered it a curse, until an international energy company came along and said it wanted to build these 40-meter (130-foot) wind turbines on his land, offering him a small fortune by local . . . Complete story »
Wind-power pollution: Turbine oil seeps into the land in Mexico
Wind turbines were planted along a strip of Mexico’s southern coast to make the country’s power industry cleaner. Now they’re spilling oil. In the town of Juchitan last month, a clean-up was under way around a generator owned by Electricite de France. Workers wearing goggles and masks were scrubbing off a copper-colored lubricant that dripped down from the turbine. They’d wrapped cloth around its base, to absorb further leakage, and stuffed contaminated soil and stones into plastic trash-bags. Cows graze . . . Complete story »
Expansion of renewable energies in Mexico has victims, too
The growing number of wind and solar power projects in the southern Mexican state of Yucatán are part of a positive change in Mexico’s energy mix. But affected communities do not see it in the same way, due to the fact that they are not informed or consulted, and because of how the phenomenon changes their lives. “We have no information. We have some doubts, some people say it’s good and some say it’s bad. We have heard what is . . . Complete story »
Community acceptance challenges put Mexico’s wind ambitions at risk
Mexico is looking to wind farms to reach its renewable energy targets. However, completion of wind projects has proven challenging as negotiations between indigenous communities and developers have sometimes ended in long delays and even project suspensions. The Pena Nieto administration hopes the country will be generating 25% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2018. To achieve this, the government set a goal of bringing 10,140 MW of new renewable energy capacity online, with 7,590 MW of that wind. Leopoldo Rodriguez, . . . Complete story »
Mexico’s wind farms brought prosperity, but not for everyone
LA VENTOSA, Mexico – At night, Juan Piñeda López hears the hum of a wind turbine that churns 300 yards away from his adobe house. Sometimes he catches the stench of lubricant that spews down the turbine’s mast. Beyond that, Mr. Piñeda said, the forest of turbines that has sprung up on the plains here in the southern state of Oaxaca in recent years barely affects him. And that is the problem. Eight years after Mexico embraced the fight against climate . . . Complete story »
Legal challenges halt wind, hydro projects
The future of a series of investments in renewable energy sources amounting to over 19 billion pesos (just over US $1 billion) remains uncertain, because the communities where they would be located have filed amparos to halt them. That’s the case with the 396-megawatt capacity Eólica del Sur wind farm in the Isthmus region of the state of Oaxaca. The project has been delayed by four years due to its rejection by a group of community land owners, or ejidatarios. . . . Complete story »
Dutch pension fund quits much-delayed 396-MW wind project in Mexico – report
Dutch pension fund manager PGGM is abandoning a 396-MW project in Mexico after several years of delays due to community resistance, Dutch media reported this week. The fund is withdrawing the EUR 250 million (USD 285m) it had earmarked for the 132-turbine Eolica del Sur wind power project in Oaxaca state. This is the successor to the Marena project that attracted many community complaints and significant opposition. Apart from PGGM, the project consortium also includes Macquarie and Mitsubishi Corporation (TYO:8058). . . . Complete story »
