CFE to study potential of Cerritos Colorados, Mexico
U.S.-Mexico Border at Tijuana, Mexico (source: flickr/ Casey Renner, creative commons)
Francisco Rojas
3 Oct 2014
Reviving a 40 year old geothermal project in Jalisco, Mexico, both for the environment and for the local economy.Mexican Federal Electricity Commission has allocated $10 USD million for the project.
Forty years ago, the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) began in the “Bosque La Primavera” in Jalisco, a series of studies to evaluate the geothermal potential of the area. Since then, the project has been taken up and abandoned time and again by political, economic and environmental circumstances, but the federal government will bet again and allocated 136 million pesos (10 million USD) in the project budget next year to study the area.
The budget projection for the year says that CFE will have 907 million pesos (67 Million USD) to exercise between 2016 and 2018 for the geothermal plant in the area known as Cerritos Colorados. The project must be approved in Congress.
Scholars such as José Antonio Gómez and Francisco Núñez Cornú Reyna of the University of Guadalajara, look favourably on the project, but seek to protect the natural area. Since the CFE drilled the first exploration well in 1980, more than twenty been studied. The conclusion is that the area has the capacity to produce an average of 590 gigawatt hours (GWh), which represent about 10% of consumption in the metropolitan area.
Though the project was revived with Felipe Calderón, with all the authorization the Ministry of Environment (SEMARNAT), it was buried for lack of funds. Today, the federal deputy and member of the Energy Committee in San Lazaro, Abel Salgado Peña explains that more evaluation studies are required to ensure the profitability of the investment and prevent environmental damage to the forest. “It could start operating in 2016.” Such projects, he adds, will decrease the energy dependence of Jalisco, resulting in a lower long-term cost to industry and population. The precise fact is that the entity generates only 3% of the electricity consumed. Martha Ruth del Toro, former head of the Ministry of Environment of Jalisco, agrees to be updated studies to rule out that there will be damage to the ecosystem. The Delegation of SEMARNAT, the Ministry of Environment (Semadet) and management of the CFE in Jalisco refused to express an opinion on the project.
Source: El Informador
