A new solar plant in Yucatán has the capacity to produce up to 18 megawatts of electricity and serve up to 5.3% of the state’s households.
The San Ignacio solar plant, which covers 66 hectares in the municipality of Progreso, was inaugurated Friday by Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal. The Chinese company Jinko Solar invested US $30 million to build the plant.
Energy generated by the plant will be consumed in Progreso and the state capital, Mérida.
Speaking at the inauguration, Governor Vila said he hopes Yucatán will continue to invest in renewable energy infrastructure.
“With this kind of action, we’re putting Yucatán on the map as a destination for investment,” he said. “We’re going to keep promoting our state in Mexico and around the world, and above all, we’re going to keep making renewable energy projects a priority.”
Vila added that in addition to the San Ignacio plant, 24 other renewable energy projects are under way in Yucatán, representing investment of as much as $4.5 billion.
“Yucatán consumes 900 megawatts, and I calculate that in three or four years, we will be generating 3,400 megawatts of clean energy,” he said. “We would be the only state in the country to be self-sufficient, and generating more renewable energy than we consume.”
Manuel Mendizábal Quemada, head of Jinko Solar in Mexico, told the newspaper Diario de Yucatán that the company has plans for another plant in state.
“We’re about to start construction on another plant, in Valladolid, which will be bigger,” he said. “We’re investing $100 million in it, and it will generate 79 megawatts of renewable energy. Those are all the plans we have at the moment, but we could build even more plants in the future.”
Mendizábal explained that the San Ignacio plant uses “tracker” technology, which allows its 71,000 panels to follow the light of the sun and absorb more energy.
Founded in 2006, Jinko Solar is the biggest solar panel company in the world. Mexico is Jinko’s second-largest export market, representing over 10% of the company’s total revenue.
Source: El Universal (sp), El Diario de Yucatán (sp), Milenio (sp)
