mexico renews itself - ProMéxico

18 Negocios ProMéxico Negocios ProMéxico 19
Mexico
and
Renewable
Energy
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared 2012 the
International Year for Sustainable Energy for All with Resolution
65/151. As such, this year has become a valuable opportunity for
raising awareness about the need to increase sustainable access to
energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy in the local, national,
regional and international spheres.
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by maría cristina rosas*
photo courtesy of siemens
Energy services have a profound effect on productivity,
health, education, climate change, food and water
security and communication services in all societies.
Therefore, the lack of access to non-polluting, affordable
and reliable energy may impede social and economic development
and constitute an important barrier for complying with
the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN, which must
be met by 2015.
At present, nearly 1.4 billion people do not have access to modern
energy, while approximately 3 billion depend on traditional
biomass and coal as their main power sources. Today, we know
that these types of energy sources are finite and will be exhausted
in the near future, which poses serious challenges for global societies.
They are also contaminating energies that compromise
compliance with international commitments designed to reduce
the greenhouse effect. In this sense, the international community
is increasingly emphasizing the need to have renewable energy
that may meet humanity’s power needs in a sustainable way.
Renewable energy is the term applied to what is obtained
from virtually inexhaustible natural resources. Some are characterized
by the enormous amount of energy they contain, while
others are able to regenerate themselves naturally. Renewable
energy sources may be divided into two categories: non-contaminating
or clean, and contaminating. The first category includes
the sun, the wind, rivers and freshwater currents, waves, sea and
ocean currents, the earth’s heat and hydrogen.
Contaminating sources are obtained from organic material
or biomass, and may be used directly as fuel (wood or other solid
plant material), or converted into bioethanol or biogas through
organic fermentation processes, or into biodiesel, through the
transesterification reactions of urban waste.
Energy from contaminating renewable sources has the same
problem as the one produced by fossil fuels: carbon dioxide –a
greenhouse gas– is released through its combustion and is often
more contaminating, because the combustion is not as clean, releasing
soot and other solid particles. However, they are categorized
as renewable energy sources because the released carbon
dioxide may be used for the next generation of organic material.
Energy may also be obtained from urban solid waste, which is
also a contaminant.
Renewable energy offers advantages that are often unappreciated.
Unlike fossil fuels, renewable sources offer a long term
guarantee of stability in energy prices. A price premium must be
paid in order to obtain similar coverage (or hedging) for a fuel.
In fact, hedging for terms as long as those offered by renewable
source technologies (often 25 years or more), does not exist in
the market. This means that renewable energy offers practically
free hedging.
In the social sphere, technologies that use renewable energy
sources promote sustainable regional development with permanent
and better paid employment. They also contribute to improving
quality of life in isolated and highly marginalized areas.