Silicon Border, Mexicali, Mexico

Innovative Aspect

There have been several factors that have led to Mexico encouraging the growth in this sector. Several obvious factors are the fact that that Mexico offers a number of advantages: low operating costs; preferences under the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade pacts; and close proximity to potential customers in the United States. Another reason are the Government’s policies and programmes. In the National Energy Programme and the fact that the Federal Government has declared  renewable energy of national interest. Policy actions are being instrumented to encourage private sector participation in new renewable energy projects and to expand the scope of previous programs such as PV rural electrification.

Description

Given these government incentives a variety of PV applications, beyond those of providing rural communities with basic electricity services, is taking place in remote sites of Mexico. An overview for the most relevant ones is given in the following paragraphs..

Telecommunications
This could be the single largest application of PV systems in Mexico after electrification of rural communities. Specific projects include telephone links and microwave, VHF, telephone and TV repeating stations. The telephone company and most television networks, along with the highway patrol and the national petroleum, railroad and electric companies, have switched to PV to power their remote communications stations, replacing diesel generators and gas turbines, owing to the  higher reliability and lower operational costs of the PV option. In some cases, the difficulties of bringing fuels to very remote sites have been the driving force behind the switch .

Luminaires
Some ecological parks, housing developments and natural preserves, even within city limits, are being provided with light points powered by photovoltaics. Over 500 such luminaries have been installed, with PV panels of around 150 W each. Typical systems use 35-W low-pressure sodium vapour lamps, which operate from 4 to 10 h per day depending on the application. Some installations have been made in public parking areas such as shopping centers and theaters

And finally one of the main reasons Mexico is encouraging foreign investment is that there is no cell nor module production in Mexico with locally developed technology and it is seen as a area with a high requirement for PV energy and a close proximity to a big buyer of PV Products, namely the U.S.

Manufacturers and suppliers of other components
The Mexican PV Industry is mainly devoted to produce balance of system components for SHS, including batteries, lamps and charge controllers. PV modules are still being imported from abroad as is the case of inverters for PV grid connected systems. A number of companies have been created for the commercialization of PV and renewable energy systems. Foreign  companies are venturing with Mexican companies for the same purpose.

Indirect policy issues
During 2001 Federal government launched a project to provide electricity and electricity based services to indigenous communities with more than 100 inhabitants. It was stated that 25% of the allocated budget should be invested in projects using renewables.

Benefits

An example of a real-life firm investing in Mexicali is Q-cells from Germany – which previously announced its intentions to develop a major 3000-acre thin film photovoltaics manufacturing facility at the Silicon Border industrial park just across the border from Calexico, Calif., about 120 miles east of San Diego at a projected cost of $3.5 billion. The development – which is dependent on the future growth of the PV market in the US, Mexico and Latin America – Is what the Mexican  developers hope will become a slew of green technology companies looking to find a low-cost home near California, one of the world's most promising markets for renewable energy. In addition the park is close to the U.S border in Southern California and has been granted a range of incentives by the Mexican Government, though the park has struggled to gain actual commitments from hi-tech industries for many years, especially from the semiconductor industry.
The German PV manufacturer said that the plan was part of its ‘internationalisation strategy and given its location Mexicali the Mexicali border project has been successful in persuading semiconductor fabrication companies to diversify their supply chains by keeping some production in North America.