mexico renews itself An Overview of the Energy Industryber of Cemex’s cement and concrete products in Croatia, will be introduced in Egypt, the Philippines, Colombia, Costa Rica

III - 2012

mexicorenews

itselfAn Overview of the

Mexican RenewableEnergy Industry

VII - 2012

Contents. July 2012

Cover Feature

Mexico Renews

itself

From the Ceo 4

Briefs 6

Special report MorelosJust The Ticket for Investors 11

Mexico in the World A Green Agenda for the Coming Years 14

Guest opinion Renewable Energies and the Reduction of Gas Emissions in Mexico 16

Business tips Mexico and Renewable Energy 18

Mexico’s Partner Vinte 12

An Overview of the Mexican Renewable

Energy IndustryPage 22

México Power Group 26

Kioto Clear Energy 28

Siliken 30 Conermex 32

Energías Renovables de México 34

General Electric 36

Siemens 38

SoWiTec 40

Kyocera 42

Solartec 44 Figures 46

Negocios ProMéxico es una publicación mensual editada en inglés por ProMéxi-co, Camino a Santa Teresa número 1679, colonia Jardines del Pedregal, Delegación Álvaro Obregón, C.P. 01900, México, D.F. Teléfono: (52) 55 54477000. Página Web: www.promexico.gob.mx. Correo electró-nico: [email protected] Editor responsable: Gabriel Sebastián Escalante Bañuelos. Reserva de derechos al uso exclusivo No. 04-2009-012714564800-102. Licitud de título: 14459. Licitud de contenido: 12032, ambos otorga-dos por la Comisión Calificadora de Publicaciones y Revistas Ilustradas de la Secretaría de Goberna-ción. ISSN: 2007-1795.

ProMéxicoCarlos Guzmán BofillCEO

Sebastián EscalanteManaging [email protected]

Miguel Ángel Samayoa Advertising and [email protected]

Natalia HerreroSuzette CelayaCopy Editing

Laboratorio editorialFelipe ZúñigaEditor in Chief [email protected]

Paola ValenciaThe Lifestyle Editor

Alan AcevedoDesign

Graeme StewartProofreading

CM IdiomasAlison StewartTranslation

This is an editorial project for ProMéxico by Laboratorio Editorial S.A. de C.V.

Download the PDF version and read the interactive edition of Negocios ProMéxico at: negocios.promexico.gob.mx

This publication is not for sale. Its sale and commercial distribution are forbidden.

The Lifestyle The CompleTe Guide To The mexiCan Way of life

Negocios ProMéxico año 5, número VII, julio 2012, se terminó de imprimir el 16 de julio de 2012, con un tiraje de 12,000 ejemplares. Impresa por Cía. Impre-sora El Universal, S.A. de C.V. Las opiniones expre-sadas por los autores no reflejan necesariamente la postura del editor de la publicación. Queda estricta-mente prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de los contenidos e imágenes de la publicación, sin previa autorización de ProMéxico. Publicación Gratuita. Prohibida su venta y distribución comercial.ProMéxico is not responsible for inaccurate informa-tion or omissions that might exist in the information provided by the participant companies nor of their economic solvency. The institution might or might not agree with an author’s statements; therefore the re-sponsibility of each text falls on the writers, not on the institution, except when it states otherwise. Although this magazine verifies all the information printed on its pages, it will not accept responsibility derived from any omissions, inaccuracies or mistakes. July 2012.

the Lifestyle Briefs Page 50

the Lifestyle report Mexico in Expo Yeosu 2012 Page 52

48 Hours in Veracruz Page 58

the Lifestyle FeatureThe Good Land Mexican Organic ProductsPage 62

Design The Acapulco Chair Page 70

Mexico according to... Enrique OlveraPage 72

Mario

MolinaThere is Something

in the Air

54

Interview

Betsabée RomeroCity on a Thread Page 66

Renewable energies in Mexico have grown progressively over the last decade. Not only has there been an increase in the country’s installed capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources, but favorable conditions have been created for business development in the sector.

This progress has been driven by several factors, including public bids for the development of renewable energy infrastructure, boosted by the determination of the Mexican government to privilege the use of clean sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country; opportunities to establish equipment manufacturing centers and develop renewable energy technologies; and a budding market that secures stronger commitments for a clean consumption.

Current global leaders in the renewable energy industry are setting their sights on Mexico and its business potential to develop the sector. In much the same way, businesses of all sizes and sectors are now investing in power generation projects for self-consumption, convinced of the savings and their contribution to the country’s environmental protection goals.

Mexican homes are committing to renewable energy like never before. This, in turn, has resulted in a dramatic growth in the market for residential clean energy systems.

Mexico is creating the right conditions for renewable energy to become not only a viable option to responsibly satisfy its future power needs, but also a strategic industry that receives investment and creates new jobs; an economic sector with the highest growth rate and largest number of development opportunities.

Welcome to Negocios!

Carlos Guzmán BofillCEOProMéxico

From the Ceo.

There Are mAny wAys To geT your clienTs’ ATTenTion,

none As effecTive As ours

negocios.promexico.gob.mx [email protected]

Published monthly in English.

Distributed among businessmen, decision-makers, research centers and national and international subscribers.

Close to 10,000 copies out of 15,000 are distributed abroad through a network of more than 30 representative offices located in 22 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East; all Mexican embassies and consulates and at international trade shows and expos.

Geographic distribution covers a wide spectrum of key countries and cities, which guarantees a strategic coverage in the world’s leading markets.

Briefs Briefs

Reflecting continued rising labor and other manufacturing costs for imports from faraway places like China, “near-shoring” continues to be seen as an op-portunity to serve US demand by about half of C-level and other senior execu-tives of manufacturing-oriented compa-nies, and while 35% of that number view manufacturing inside the US as the most attractive choice for such re-sourcing –up from 21% in 2011– 50% view last year’s top choice, Mexico, as the No. 1 choice again in 2012. That is s according to a survey of C-level and other senior execu-

tives in manufacturing-oriented compa-nies that sell into the US market released by AlixPartners, the global business advi-sory firm.

According to the survey, Mexico’s av-erage ranking for attractiveness among those likely to near-shore was more than seven times that of Brazil’s and countries in Central America combined.

The survey also polled executives on plans to off-shore current US operations, and found that 37% of respondents have already completed or are in the process of off-shoring, while 27% expect to off-shore

US operations within the next three years. Of those who have off-shored or plan to off-shore, Mexico also topped the list as the most attractive locale, beating out the BRIC countries.

Highlighting geographical proxim-ity and improvements in transportation services, 63% of senior executives chose Mexico as the most attractive locale for re-sourcing manufacturing operations closer to the US market –compared with just 19% who would re-source to the US.

www.alixpartners.com

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Mexico Holds the World’s Leading Position in Near-shoring_____

Cemex has introduced its Ecoperating seal that will identify the products and services from the firm’s portfolio of building solu-tions that have an outstanding sustainability performance.

Ecoperating is a seal that was developed through a rigorous internal process that measures the environmental or social impact of a wide range of building solutions that Cemex offer: from products like low CO2 cement or concrete, to services such as paperless invoicing, to construction solutions like concrete pavements with smart LED lighting, to initiatives to build affordable hous-ing, and to increase the use of alternative fuels derived from in-dustrial, agricultural and residential waste.

The Ecoperating seal was introduced in June 2012 in a num-ber of Cemex’s cement and concrete products in Croatia, will be introduced in Egypt, the Philippines, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico during the third quarter of 2012, and in countries in Northern Europe, South America and the Caribbean and Asia during the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first half of 2013.

www.cemex.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY

EGP Starts Operationsof its New Wind Farm_____

UK Aerospace Parts Supplier JJ Churchill Ltd. will invest more than 9 million usd to install a plant in Guaymas, Sonora, where the company will manufacture gas turbine aerofoils in Mexico.

According to the company, the Sonoran factory will allow JJ Churchill to increase its competitiveness on high volume components. With the addition of the new Mexican facility, the firm will now have a strong presence in all three stages of the product manufacture lifecycle: from new product introduction, through to volume production and after-market demand.

www.jjchurchill.com

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

Preparing the Landing Gear_____

Enel Green Power (EGP) has started operations at its first wind farm in Mexico, Bii Nee Stipa II.

The plant, which leverages on the excellent wind resources that characterise the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, located in the state of Oaxaca, has a load factor of around 40%. The fully-op-erational plant is able to generate over 250 million kWh of clean energy annually, therefore avoiding atmospheric emissions of over 100,000 tons of CO2 every year.

With the start of operations of this new facility, EGP has strengthened its footprint in the promising Mexican renew-ables market, which the Group has been present in since 2007 in the hydroelectric sector. Bii Nee Stipa II now lines up along-side the three hydroelectric plants which, with a total installed capacity of 53 MW, generated over 230 million kWh of zero-emissions energy in 2011.

Developed and built by Gamesa the plant is comprised of 37 Gamesa wind turbines of 2 MW each, for a total installed capac-ity of 74 MW. Total investment for the construction of Bii Nee Stipa II amounts to about 160 million usd.

www.enelgreenpower.com ph

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CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Building a Green Future_____

BriefsNegocios ProMéxico 11

World-class companies seeking to invest in Mex-ico have found Morelos fits the ticket. Between year-end 2006 and June 2012, the state received over 900 million usd in foreign direct investment

(FDI), with private investment averaging 500 million usd a year in the same period.

In terms of innovation and technological development proc-esses, the Science and Technology Consultative Forum (FCCyT) ranks Morelos third in the country, mainly on the strength of its institutional and legal framework, the number of scientists either working or undergoing training there and public investment in sci-ence and technology.

Several strategic infrastructure projects are currently underway, like the Cuernavaca International Airport, the Tec de Monterrey-Morelos Center for Innovation, the World Trade Center Morelos Convention Complex, a combined cycle power plant and a gas pipe-line, as well as road works and the extension of highways.

There are two research centers in the state of Morelos that are leaders in Applied Physics and Energy: the Institute of Physical Sci-ences (ICF), located in the Cuernavaca Campus of the National Au-tonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and the Energy Research Center (CIE), located in the municipality of Temixco.

These research centers lead the way in areas related to renew-able energies, which they study from physics-mathematics, chemis-try-biology, economics and engineering standpoints.

Among their lines of research is the development of photovoltaic materials and optical and optoelectronic devices, along with the evaluation of photovoltaic systems. They also perform studies on

techniques to leverage solar and geothermal power, and on energy planning. In addition, these centers do research on refrigeration sys-tems, heat pumps and thermal transformers, as well as basic and ap-plied studies on phenomena related to irreversible process thermody-namics, statistical mechanics and solid-state physics. Furthermore, they explore energy and mass transfer in various systems: open-channel flow, natural convection and oscillatory flows, among others.

The Morelos i+D Science and Technology Park, located 20 kilom-eters south of Cuernavaca next to the Cuernavaca-Acapulco Highway, is also worth mentioning. The facility covers 36 hectares, 15 of which have been urbanized and have all the basic utilities, including a fiber optic network to facilitate voice and data transmissions, and an elec-tric sub-station to guarantee a reliable supply to the firms that have migrated there, mainly technology-based companies and applied research centers operating in both the public and private sectors.

Morelos i+D has two four-story buildings, each with 3,000 square meters of space available for lease, plus a high-tech incu-bator, an accelerator, training facilities, a business center and a technological center.

The latter is what sets Morelos i+D apart from similar projects in Mexico. Boasting labs and applied research units set up by leading academic institutions, not just in the state but nationwide, is what turns this center into the spot that renders the chemical analyses, resistance testing, advanced microscopy and other such serv-ices demanded by the industry in the areas of biotechnology and the physical sciences.

www.negociosenmorelos.gob.mx

MoreLos Just the Ticket for Investors Strategically located and offering excellent quality of life, the state of Morelos has a competitive workforce skilled in a wide range of manufacturing activities. Corporations have found this to be an exceptional environment for innovation and technological development, a factor that accounts for the recent surge in productive investment.

FOOD INDUSTRY

Reviving an Ancient Crop _____

Embraer and Zodiac Aerospace have reached an agreement to set up a joint venture to manufacture in Mexico cabin interior parts for the Embraer 170/190 family of jets.

Embraer is expanding its manufac-turing operations beyond Brazil, where costly labor, infrastructure bottlenecks and currency swings have weighed on the country’s industrial base.

The Mexico venture follows the open-ing of Embraer’s industrial facilities in China, Portugal and the US.

www.embraer.comwww.zodiacaerospace.com

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

Union MakesStrength_____

Hershey, the biggest chocolate producer in North America, aims to revive Mex-ico’s cocoa production by giving away disease-resistant plants to farmers.

The company has launched the 10-year Mexico Cocoa Project with cocoa supplier Agroindustrias Unidas de Ca-cao, a member of the Ecom Cocoa Group.

The project, which will take place in southern Mexico, is a 2.8 million usd initiative, aimed at treating frosty pod rot, or Moniliasis, which is a disease that attacks the fruit of the cacao tree.

The farmers who receive the hybrid plants, which will take three to seven years to grow useable cocoa pods, will not be obligated to sell to Hershey.

www.thehersheycompany.com

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12 Negocios ProMéxico Negocios ProMéxico 13

A Unique Solution to a Common Problem

A ll over the world, people come home from a hard day at work to broken water heaters and leaking faucets. As if this weren’t bad enough, many of them live in rundown neighborhoods where it’s not safe to walk

the streets at night. Aware of this reality, a group of visionaries with experience

in the housing sector set themselves the mission of developing a sustainable residential concept with a focus on social integration and quality of life. In short: decent housing.

But what is decent housing? According to Vinte CEO Sergio Leal, it’s housing “that you like and where you live a positive life. If you don’t like how you live, it’s going to affect the rest of your activities. Vinte was founded with the vision of providing and building decent homes.”

The company started out in 2004 with a residential develop-ment in Tecamac, Estado de México, consisting of 1,860 homes equipped with an Internet connection and a free computer.

“Why not install fitted kitchens instead?” commented one of Sergio’s colleagues, to which he replied: “Because what I’m of-fering will give my customers access to culture so they have the possibility of acquiring more things.” And so the integral housing concept began to take shape. “At first people said we were crazy, that technology should enter at the top of the pyramid and not the base. But we were convinced that if it enters at the base, it lowers the cost and that’s in everyone’s interest,” says Sergio Leal.

Eight years down the line, Vinte’s residential developments in Estado de México, Querétaro, Quintana Roo and Hidalgo have cycle paths, parks and shopping malls that create a sense of com-munity and encourage people to enjoy leisure time with their families. Today, Vinte is the only Mexican company building

seventh-generation and nearly-zero-energy homes.In this instance, the term “seventh-generation” refers to

homes designed to incorporate broadband Internet, computer equipment and connectivity services from day one, while “nearly zero energy” homes feature a bioclimatic design, advanced te-lemetry systems, photovoltaic (PV) and other energy efficiency systems that can translate into savings of up to 90% on home-owners’ electricity bills.

Boasting the largest (R&D) area in the sector, Vinte not only has a nanostructured materials lab, but has entered into a re-search alliance with the Mexican cement giant Cemex, is work-ing on the development of plastics with Intel, and ways of making steel lighter and more resistant.

The sub-products of these collaborations –like insulation paint that saves on polystyrene and a telemeasuring system that provides real-time information on how much gas you have left or how much water and electricity you are consuming– are incorpo-rated into the homes Vinte builds.

Vinte, says Sergio Leal, “is the only housing developer in Mexico whose value is increasing at an annual rate of 20%.”

These figures have not escaped the notice of the World Bank (WB), which acquired a 10.6% stake in the company back in 2008, in the full throes of the international financial crisis. Vinte is the first housing developer in the world to receive WB invest-ment funds and according to a report published by the institu-tion, Mexico’s housing sector is a model to be followed by the rest of the world.

“In Mexico, a house costing just 19,000 usd can qualify for a green mortgage [to equip it with sustainable technology]. Where else in the world can you see this?” asks Leal.

Solid financial results speak to the ef-fectiveness of Vinte’s business model. In the first quarter of 2012 alone, the com-pany posted growth 21.2% higher than in the same period of 2011.

“We did things properly. We’re a solid company with a social, economic and eco-logical vision –which happen to be the three pillars of sustainable development. The market is rewarding us; we report good re-sults and have a very large innovation area,” says Sergio Leal.

Just recently, the German Investment Corporation (DEG) extended Vinte a 200-million-peso credit line (almost 15 mil-lion usd). This is the first time in history that a banking institution of such prestige has placed its trust in a Mexican company.

International recognition is simply one more reason to continue providing Mexi-cans with decent housing in a sector where “competition will hinge on added value, re-sulting in a win-win situation for the cus-tomer. Vinte will continue anticipating the conveniences people will need in the short term, with a view to holding on to its position as the leading company in the sector in terms of innovation,” concludes Sergio Leal. n

www.realparaiso.com

A pioneering force on the Mexican market, Vinte’s integral housing concept has garnered the company international recognition.____by david ricardo vizcarraphotos courtesy of vinte


provided that health and scientific considerations are taken into account; e) providing incentives for private sector participation in the generation of electricity from landfill waste; and f ) provid-ing financial, economic and administrative support to projects regarding solid urban waste management.

PACifiC OCeAn And GUlf Of MexiCOThe Ministry of the Navy (SEMAR) and the CONAGUA should strengthen the supervision and oversight of wastewater discharg-es in coastal zones and enhance the identification of discharge sources to the sea. In the event of contamination, cleanup pro-grams should address all pollutant sources involved.

inStitUtiOnAl StrenGtheninG Improved coordination is recommended among the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), other fed-eral government agencies, national and international financial funds, and state and municipal governments to prevent the loss of economic resources from green funds and to simplify administra-tive regulatory procedures. The creation of a government agency in charge of coordinating the development of green projects and a “single window” system for administrative procedures is sug-gested. In addition, the Federal Environmental Protection Attor-ney’s Office (PROFEPA) should be provided with autonomy and an environmental public defender office should be implemented.

a Green agendafor the Coming YearsFree trade is defined through the increase in a country’s productivity and competitiveness. As one of its most ardent advocates, Mexico has earned good standing in international negotiations and attracted productive investments. ____by edward ranger* and mariana westendarp**illustration archive

The recent publication of Mexico’s General Law on Cli-mate Change requires the implementation of several economic provisions in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and define the operation of the

Mexican carbon market. Said law sets adaptation mechanisms in vulnerable sectors such as: biodiversity conservation, coastal areas, agriculture and fisheries. Along with these matters, efficient energy consumption and waste reduction should also be taken into consideration.

renewAble enerGieS And enerGy effiCienCyThe exploitation of Mexico’s renewable energies needs specific actions to be effective, among others: a) broadening the range of participation from national and foreign companies in renewable energies; b) opening the market to the sale of electricity surpluses; c) assessing the existence of economic and financial incentives for electricity generation from solar energy; and d) carrying out sig-nificant reforms to the legal framework regarding national water, mining and environmental protection to increase the exploitation of geothermal electricity. In addition, energy efficiency mecha-nisms, such as “smart grids” need to be implemented.

drOUGht And wAter reSOUrCeSMexico needs to invest in better water distribution systems be-tween the northern and southern part of its territory, as well as the elimination of leakages, and adequate wastewater treatment. Re-garding water consumption, the elimination of the legal require-ment by which non-consumption of water during two consecutive years leads to cancellation of leftover water volumes during such period is suggested. Instead, the implementation of clear incen-tives regarding water savings is proposed. In addition, the decen-tralization of the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) is recommended in order to enhance transparency relating to water consumption and wastewater discharges.

wASte MAnAGeMentImproving waste management in Mexico will result in better health conditions and greater economic development. It should consider, among other actions: a) improving the tracking system of hazardous waste; b) providing incentives to reduce, manage and dispose of hazardous waste; c) simplifying administrative procedures and allocating financial resources from fines exclu-sively to clean contaminated sites; d) reutilizing hazardous waste

bOrder MAtterSEnhanced coordination and standardization should be imple-mented between Mexican environmental authorities and its counterparts in neighboring countries. Such coordination and standardization should consider the following matters: a) infor-mation systems for GHG inventories and protocols; b) promo-tion of solar energy exploitation in Mexico’s northern border; c) enhanced water distribution planning and management; d) economic and technical cooperation for management and conser-vation of shared biodiversity; e) control system of entry and exit of hazardous waste and biodiversity; f ) clarifying and enhancing coordination protocols between environmental authorities and their counterparts in Mexico; and g) complying with maximum permissible emission of gaseous pollutants from motor vehicles that use gasoline as fuel, mainly in Mexico’s northern border.

These suggestions are an important outcome of extensive consultations. All of them are committed towards sustainable economic growth and environmental best practices. n

*Chairman, Climate Change Committee, American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico.** Associate lawyer at Jáuregui y Navarrete.


Renewable eneRgies and the Reduction

of gas emissionsin mexico

Scientific evidence increasingly points to the severity of climate change, an issue that has risen to the top of Mexico’s agenda, to the extent that it has permeated

decision-making in various sectors, both public and private. ____

by andrés flores montalvo*photo courtesy of cfe

Mexico is described as a country “particularly vul-nerable” to climate change, although historically its greenhouse gas emissions –the most important human contribution to the problem– have not been

significant. But even though the country’s emissions have been increasing in both absolute and relative terms and its growth has outpaced that of developed nations, which have been mainly responsible for climate change, Mexico accounts for only 1.5% of annual global emissions.

Thus, it is clear Mexico’s efforts to reduce emissions will be unavailing unless other countries take on similar or greater work. Mexico has no binding emission-reduction commitments under international agreements, yet it has undertaken ambitious actions to promote efforts on low-emission development based on cleaner and more efficient practices and technologies, only comparable to those of the developed and emerging countries.

To a large extent, compliance with emission-reduction targets, especially higher cost ones, will depend on international assist-ance agreed to at multilateral forums, namely carbon market funds and support mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund, which Mexico backed relentlessly until its ratification at COP 16 in Can-cun at the end of 2010.

The General Law on Climate Change, –signed by President Felipe Calderón on June 5, 2012– not only sets out Mexico’s emission-reduction targets in the medium term, but establishes a legal precept. Compliance will require efforts on several fronts to achieve a 30% reduction vis-à-vis a business-as-usual baseline by 2020, and an absolute reduction of 50% in total greenhouse gas

emissions by 2050, compared to 2000. Renewable sources of ener-gy are expected to play a significant role in reaching these targets.

In 2008 alone, renewable energies accounted for 12.9% of the world’s primary energy, while nuclear energy accounted for only two percent and fossil fuels 85.1% (oil, 34.6%; coal, 28.4%; and gas, 22.1%).

However, despite the international financial crisis, installed ca-pacity in the renewable energy industry has continued to increase steadily. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), by the mid-21st century, 80% of the world’s energy supplies could be obtained from renewable sources, provided the proper public policies are introduced. Making the transition to renewable energies is justified not only from an environmental perspective, but in light of the need to meet growing demand for energy, particularly by developing countries.

In terms of renewable energy sources, Mexico has enormous potential. A large part of the country receives extremely high levels of solar radiation –among the highest in the world– and small hydroelectric plants have the capacity to meet most of the demand in communities not connected to the power grid. There are geothermal fields that have yet to be exploited, areas with high intensity winds, and potential in sustainable biofuels and genera-tion of energy from waste.

The National Ecology Institute (INE) has conducted several studies whose findings support the country’s low-emission devel-opment goals in the medium term. One such study consisted of a cost-benefit analysis of an extensive portfolio of projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The conclusion was that projects that provide for the large scale use of renewable technologies are not

only viable economically, but beneficial to the country. These projects promote economic growth and social development, while protecting the environment and providing energy security.

The latter is deemed a strategic issue for Mexico, where sus-tainable development rests on two main pillars: efficient energy use by all end consumers and diversification of energy sources to include renewable, sustainable sources that help reduce the country’s carbon footprint and guarantee energy supplies for its future development.

The main obstacles to the use of renewable energies in Mexico are the integration of existing and future energy systems, espe-cially electricity grids, and cost-benefit factors. Even so, the rela-tive contribution of renewable energies is on the increase and as their cost declines, their use becomes more widespread, even in the absence of incentives. But experience has shown that favorable policies make all the difference. Consequently, we need to promote corrective measures to make renewable energies more appealing and eliminate subsidies on fossil fuels.

Another drawback is that renewable technologies require a hefty initial outlay, and although they are economically competi-tive, production costs are often higher than the market value of the energy generated. However, if we quantify the environmental ex-ternalities (pollutants and greenhouse gases) in monetary terms, many of the renewable technologies available have more going for them than their conventional counterparts.

Public policies that reflect and bear in mind the many eco-nomic, social and environmental benefits of renewable ener-gies –particularly their potential as a means of reducing green-

house gas emissions and atmospheric pollution, and improving public health– will play a decisive role in the consolidation of this industry in Mexico. In light of this irrefutable evidence, Mexico needs to work toward an energy policy that draws on all its relative advantages, exploits existing opportunities and promotes the use of renewable energies, aiming to diversify its energy supplies well into the future. n

*Head of Economic and Environmental Policy Research at the National Ecology Institute (INE) – Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

In terms of renewable energy sources, Mexico has

enormous potential. A large part of the country receives

extremely high levels of solar radiation –among the

highest in the world.


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. ____

by maría cristina rosas*

Energy services have a profound effect on productiv-ity, health, education, climate change, food and water security and communication services in all societies. Therefore, the lack of access to non-polluting, afford-

able and reliable energy may impede social and economic devel-opment 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 mod-ern 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 so-cieties. They are also contaminating energies that compromise compliance with international commitments designed to reduce the greenhouse effect. In this sense, the international communi-ty 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 char-acterized 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-contam-inating 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, re-leasing soot and other solid particles. However, they are catego-rized 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 unappre-ciated. 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 perma-nent and better paid employment. They also contribute to im-proving quality of life in isolated and highly marginalized areas.p

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Similarly, taking advantage of renewable sources is one of the best ways to reduce the impact of the energy sector on the environment, since their use expedites access to diverse financing schemes and cooperation that are sponsored by dif-ferent nations and international organizations.

Recently, the government has passed the Law for the Exploita-tion of Renewable Energies and Financing of the Energy Transition, which is designed to support the range of actors and technologies involved in renewable energy through the following schemes: 1. Electricity generation through state-owned companies.2. Electricity generation through private companies (private

enterprise, public enterprise, municipalities and individu-als), especially:

In small or isolated projects that are not viable for state-owned companies.

In multi-use systems in which energy generation can-not be separated from the use of other resources.

3. Other technologies from renewable energy sources, such as: Electricity generation in isolated sites. Thermal use of solar or geothermal energy. Wind energy pumps or hydraulic rams. Biomass-based fuel production (biodiesel and ethanol,

among others). Clean and efficient woodstoves.

Said law states that the use of renewable energy and clean technologies is for public benefit and should be promoted as part of the National Energy Transition Strategy. This strategy is designed to promote efficient and sustainable energy use to re-duce Mexico’s dependence on hydrocarbons as its main power source. In its scope, the law expressly omits nuclear energy, hy-droelectric power with a capacity over 30 MW, incinerators or thermal treatment of any type of waste and the use of sanitary landfills that do not meet environmental regulations.

In the educational sphere, Mexico shows a growing interest in the subject of renewable energy, which is reflected in gradu-ate programs in various universities and research institutes. For instance, the Center for Energy Research (CIE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has been carrying out research for several years in areas such as solar en-ergy and geothermal energy; the Electricity Research Institute, also belonging to the UNAM, includes the alternative energy di-vision among its lines of research, which is basically focused on using residual biomass, solar and hydroelectric energy, all with an emphasis on energy industry services. The recently created Mario Molina Center is carrying out strategic studies on energy and the environment, with a focus on atmospheric emissions.

In terms of educational programs, the UNAM’s CIE offers a Master’s in Engineering, which focuses on solar energy, geo-thermal energy and hydrogen technology. Recently, the Autono-mous University of Guadalajara (UAG) began a Master’s degree in renewable energy focused on studying biofuels and their performance in engines. Also, there are some undergraduate offerings in this area, such as the degree in Energy Systems En-gineering at the University of Quintana Roo (UQROO), and the Energy Engineering program at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) in Iztapalapa.

In Mexico, 60% of greenhouse gas emissions come from en-ergy production, since 90% of it is produced by burning fossil

Currently, Mexico has an important installed capacity

to generate electricity from renewable sources .

fuels. Projections estimate that the country’s energy consump-tion will grow by 3.3% annually, which implies an emissions increase of 230% before 2030. Therefore, it is essential to work on energy savings, as well as on a quick and responsible escala-tion of Mexico’s renewable power potential. Currently, Mexico has an important installed capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources. Yet, there are enormous possibilities for investment and expansion in the sector –in wind projects alone, experts estimate that more than 20 billion usd could be invested over the next 10 years.

Undoubtedly, renewable energy will provide great oppor-tunities for growth and investment in Mexico. The country is currently immersed in an energy transition, motivated by the need to reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons and the com-mitments it has assumed in the international arena. These two factors alone, the demand for infrastructure and technology for generating renewable energy, set out a unique opportunity for business and investment in the short and medium term. n

*Professor and researcher in the Political and Social Sciences Faculty, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

In Mexico, 60% of greenhouse gas emissions

come from energy production, since 90% of it is produced by burning

fossil fuels (...) It is essential to work on energy savings,

as well as on a quick and responsible escalation of

Mexico’s renewable power potential.

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Renewable energies are finally being taken seriously, driven by greater environmental awareness and threats like climate change, together with the commitments governments have undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions and dwindling fossil fuel reserves. As the world attempts to clean up its act, Mexico’s industrial sector is attracting more and more investors eager to participate in green energy projects.

Mexico’s renewable energy industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, due to a combination of govern-ment incentive programs and an influx of foreign capital.

According to figures furnished by the Energy Regulatory Com-mission (CRE), Mexico’s green industries attracted over 4.77 billion usd in foreign investment between 2005 and 2011. Wind energy, a sector that has posted sustained growth, accounted for 92% of total investment in renewable energies.

In addition to private investment, Ministry of Energy (SENER) tenders for infrastructure projects to hook up generators of clean electricity to the national grid brought in an extra 3.3 billion usd between 2010 and 2011.

“To date, installed wind capacity is 1,100 megawatts (MW), which is substantial if we consider the country’s total installed ca-pacity is 54,000 MW. In other words, wind farms account for two percent of all the electricity Mexico generates. We estimate that in a year or so, this figure will have doubled and that by 2015, our wind farms will generate around 4,000 MW,” says Leopoldo Ro-dríguez Olivé, president of the Mexican Wind Energy Association (AMDEE), who believes this increase in installed wind capacity is a good indicator of the health of the industry.

In 2005, Mexico’s wind capacity was barely 2 MW, but had jumped to 85 MW the following year when the first wind project was implemented by the Federal Electricity Commis-sion (CFE). The private sector began participating in 2009, pushing installed capacity up to 519 MW in 2010, and again to 1,100 MW in 2012.

According to a study conducted by AMDEE, Mexico could feasibly increase installed capacity to 12,000 MW by 2020, al-lowing the country to reach many of its renewable energy and emission reduction targets.

There are several mechanisms under which the private sec-tor can participate in Mexico’s wind energy business. “First, there are the companies that generate electricity. Under Mexi-can law, a private entity cannot sell electricity directly to an-other private entity, but can only generate it for self-supply pur-poses. The other way of participating is via CFE tenders, under which companies sell electricity to the government at an agreed price. About 40% of wind energy projects in Mexico operate under this mechanism, while the rest are self-supply projects,” says Rodríguez Olivé.

As the industry expands, costs have become more competitive, making renewable energies more attractive to private investors. Depending on the region the project is located in and the financ-ing conditions it operates under, costs “can be as low as 6.5 to 10 cents on the usd per kWh, which is competitive compared to commercial and industrial rates, which are the lowest,” says Ro-dríguez Olivé, adding that “wind energy is already a competitive technology that offers an interesting alternative.”

Mexico Renews itself In just a few years, the renewable energy industry has grown and the outlook for both the public and private sectors is optimistic.____by jesús estrada cortés

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“The heftiest cost in a wind project is the turbine and few are made in Mexico. They are generally imported. We’ve received equipment from Denmark, Spain and the US.” This, says Ro-dríguez Olivé, opens up investment opportunities for equipment developers and manufacturers for the wind industry.

The challenge, he says, is twofold: “to improve transmission infrastructure, so the grid reaches places where the wind is strong enough to generate electricity, and promote the development and growth of small-scale producers so more generation projects spring up around the country.”

A briGht bUSineSS The solar energy industry in Mexico has “a positive outlook in terms of the development of a market on which natural, envi-ronmental and other factors have come together with increased supply, resulting in more accessible prices,” says Alberto Valdés, president of the National Committee for Energy Regulation and deputy editor for the National Solar Energy Association (ANES).

Solar water heating systems designed for residential and com-mercial use are one niche that has grown considerably. This expansion can partly be attributed to “financial mechanisms for residential developments that provide for solar thermal energy systems, like the Green Mortgage program implemented by the

National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT),” which has already equipped around 120,000 homes with solar water heaters. Now all homes mortgaged via INFONAVIT are required to have solar water heaters and comply with related regulations.

Aside from federal programs, several states have introduced ini-tiatives to promote the use of solar energy. The Mexico City govern-ment “has issued environmental regulations requiring all businesses that provide hot water, such as restaurants and gyms, to heat at least 30% of their supplies using solar energy,” says Valdés. As a result, the number of industries participating in the sector –from manufactur-ers to distributors of solar water heating systems– has grown.

Installed capacity is an excellent way to measure the extent to which the industry has expanded. According to Valdés, there are now 1.66 million square meters of solar water heaters in-stalled in Mexico compared to between 250,000 and 300,000 square meters 10 years ago. “We are excited about the future. The goal of the National Solar Water Heater Program imple-mented by the Ministry of Economy (SE) and the National Commission for Efficient Energy Use (CONAE) is to close 2013 with 2.5 million square meters, while the target for 2020 is 23.5 million square meters.”

The other important niche is “interaction with the govern-ment, which covers alternative methods of capturing solar

energy, like photovoltaic and wind energy systems, both of which can be hooked up to the electricity grid,” says Valdés, who is quick to point out that, under Mexican law, electricity cannot be generated by private entities for sale to other private entities. “What the law allows you to do is generate your own electricity and transmit it to the grid in exchange for what you consume.”

Mexico has 510,000 high energy domestic users, but if they “simply purchased a photovoltaic system to avoid using elec-tricity during peak hours, they could save money on their elec-tricity bills,” says Valdés.

But there are still other niches to explore, like solar-powered transport systems covering short, local routes of 10 to 15 kil-ometers, says Valdés, adding that “large generators connected to the grid are another area of opportunity, because the price of photovoltaic electricity is dropping […] we now have a com-mercial tariff of 1.30 to 1.40 usd per watt, while rates for ther-moelectric generators are in the region of 1 usd per watt. This means we are very close to matching conventional rates.”

nAtUre’S bOOnSAMDEE president Leopoldo Rodríguez Olivé believes Mexico has several competitive advantages in the wind energy industry.

“Aside from regulatory incentives, we have something few other countries have: places with winds so strong they can gener-ate from 30% to 100% more electricity than other parts of the world. This increased generating power compensates for subsi-dies and makes Mexico more attractive to investors.”

Furthermore, the country’s “legal and regulatory framework is considered solid and there are good financing options.”

From the standpoint of the solar energy industry, Alberto Valdés says that Mexico’s geographical location constitutes its greatest advantage in terms of solar radiation. In the Northwest alone, solar radiation can exceed 6 kWh per square meter a day, while the rest of the country receives an average of 4.5 to 6 kWh.

Other factors that have facilitated the development of the industry in Mexico include “legislation for the installation of solar water heating systems, and the possibility of hooking up to the electricity grid,” says Valdés.

Plus, “we have a Regulatory and Evaluation Committee to ensure all solar heating systems sold here comply with interna-tional standards.”

Backed by a solid legal framework and government pro-grams, it seems Mexico’s renewable energy industry is well po-sitioned to harness the inexhaustible forces of nature and can look forward to a bright and breezy future. n

Mexico’s renewable energy industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, due to a combination

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in seArch of The PerfecT sTorm

The Law for the Exploitation of Renewable Energies and Financing of the Energy Transition (LAERFTE) was the spark that ignited a new and sprightly industry in Mexico. Announced in 2009 by the Ministry of Energy (SENER),

the new law invites the private sector to participate in mechanisms for the planned, sustainable consumption and generation of non-fossil-fuel energy, i.e. energy obtained from renewable sources such as the wind, sun, water and biomass.

This broadened the horizons of Cannon Power Group, a Califor-nia-based company specializing in wind farms that had previously been restricted to exporting the electricity generated by La Rumo-rosa wind farm, in Tecate, Baja California to the US. Now it is free to sell the energy it generates in Mexico on the domestic market, and what better incentive to increase production capacity.

Cannon Power Group and its partner, Coram Energy Corpora-tion, both have 30 years’ experience in the development of wind projects worldwide. In July 2011, they decided to grant their Mexi-can office greater autonomy. The result was the founding of a new company –México Power Group– with John Prock as CEO.

“The new legislation introduced by the Mexican government changed our approach and outlook. Now it makes more sense for us to supply companies and government entities here in Mexico with our green energy,” says Prock.

México Power Group had barely incorporated when its board chairman, Gerald Monkhouse (also board chairman of Cannon Power Group), president Brian O’Sullivan and CEO John Prock announced their first major investment in Mexico: 2.5 billion usd for the construction of three wind farms –one in Baja California, a second in Zacatecas and a third in Quintana Roo– which will produce a total of 312 megawatts (MW) during their first phase of operations.

The Promised lAndThe sheer magnitude of this outlay by México Power Group indi-cates the course Mexico is taking as the second-largest recipient of investment in the wind energy sector in Latin America, outdone

only by Brazil, which has embarked on a race to cover the entire country with turbines.

According to studies conducted by the industry worldwide, all both countries were lacking was a regulatory framework to clarify the rules for private sector participation in the generation and transmission of clean electricity.

As such, LAERFTE constitutes a huge step forward for Mexico, by defining mechanisms for the transmission of wind-generated and other renewable sources of electricity via the Federal Electric-ity Commission (CFE) grid, and generation models that allow for private sector participation.

In its 2011 Global Wind Report, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) mentions some of the most significant changes that took place in Mexico in that year: new transmission points were installed in Oaxaca –Mexico’s windiest state–, the price of turbines fell, leading wind generator developers (Acciona, Vestas, Gamesa and Clipper) entered the domestic market and financing became more available.

Meanwhile, SENER is seeking to promote the generation of clean electricity and a gradual reduction in transmission costs by developing new interconnection models and entering into agree-ments with generators.

It was back in 2010 when Mexico set itself the goal of increasing its total installed capacity for wind-generated electricity in a very short timeframe. That year, 316 MW were added to extant output at wind farms in Oaxaca and a handful of other sites around the coun-try, closing the year at 519 MW. By 2011, this figure had risen to 873 MW and in all likelihood will have reached 1 gigawatt (GW) by the time you read this, putting the country well on track to its goal of 3.5 GW by year-end 2015.

BAjA cAliforniA, where The winds of chAnge Blow A large portion of investment in Mexico’s wind energy industry ends up in Baja California, specifically the mountainous areas of the Sierra de Juárez, on the Mexico-US border.

This is where the strongest winds and the largest projects can be found, each with an estimated production capacity of 1,000 MW.

“Cannon Power Group has been keeping a close eye on this area for the last 16 years, and began working closely with communities in the vicinity of La Rumorosa as far back as 2006, with a view to exporting electricity to the US,” says Prock.

In 2007, the company sold a 250-MW generation project to Sempra Generation under a co-development agreement in the com-munity of Jacume, in the middle of the Sierra de Juárez. A year later, it purchased an additional 20,000 hectares in the area, according to information published on its website.

México Power Group is propelling radical change in the energy industry. After sweeping in on northern winds, its turbines now spin in the far south.____by omar magañaphoto courtesy of cannon power group

In July 2011, Cannon Power Group and Coram Energy

Corporation decided to grant their Mexican office greater

autonomy. The result was México Power Group.

Then, in 2010, Cannon Power Group entered into an alliance with wind-generator manufacturer Gamesa, to build a 32,000-hec-tare wind farm in Aubanel Vallejo, which is currently managed by México Power Group. During the first phase of the project, México Power Group will occupy only 750 hectares and will produce 72 MW, although total capacity is estimated at 1 GW.

“We are waiting for the perfect storm, a situation in which the natural resource –the wind–, transmission lines at our disposal and customers for the electricity we generate come together,” says Prock.

México Power Group is still negotiating permits for its project in Baja California, under which it will export electricity, supply cross-

border assembly plants and provide street lighting for the munici-palities of Tecate, Rosarito, Ensenada and Tijuana.

Substantial progress has also been made on the other two sites covered by the investment announced in 2011. During an initial phase, 60 MW will be generated on 3,400 of the 6,000 hectares the company owns on the island of Cozumel in Quintana Roo, and another 180 MW on 1,500 of the 6,500 hectares it owns in La Bufa, Zacatecas.

Trees And TurBines As fAr As The eye cAn seeEven when renewable energies represent an a priori green alterna-tive to fossil fuels, companies like México Power Group need to ensure their activities have a minimal impact on the environment and wildlife habitats.

“Since green energy is our only business, we want to protect the environment. The impact on the land is less than 2%; if it is com-mon land or is being used for something else, it can still be used for that purpose,” says Prock, adding that during the first phase of the Aubanel Vallejo project in Baja California, the company will pay 1 million usd a year for usufruct of the land where the wind turbines are to be installed, even though they will not necessarily interfere with the land’s current use.

In response to concerns voiced by environmentalists about the impact on birdlife, Prock said that the turbines México Power Group plans to install are fitted with new generation rotor blades that have a larger diameter and are just as effective at capturing wind energy, but that spin at a reduced speed of 15 revolutions per minute (rpm) and are therefore less disruptive to birds.

Prock is confident Mexico will continue to make progress on the legislative front. And as a pioneering force in the energy revolution that’s already on its doorstep, México Power Group hopes this progress will eventually afford private sector players greater freedom to generate and sell electricity without the need for a middleman. n

www.mexicopowergroup.com


Turning Up the Heat on america

Mexico is harnessing the world’s oldest source of en-ergy in what is turning out to be a hot business ven-ture. Three years ago, Kioto Clear Energy, a leading manufacturer of solar collectors, began soaking up

the sun’s rays in El Salto, Jalisco. This industrial city in Western Mexico is like a second home to Kioto, boasting the company’s only production line outside its native Austria.

The story of this multinational literally began in Robert Kanduth’s backyard, in Austria. Kanduth devised and perfected a system that could absorb the sun’s energy and use it to heat water. By 1991, his invention was already on the market. Kanduth named his company Kioto Clear Energy after the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating glo-bal warming.

Just three years later, in 1994, operations were moved to a modern 900-square-meter factory specializing in the industrial manufacture of solar collectors. This is where the GREENoneTEC product line was born, the same brand that would later become the leading distributor of solar collectors on the European market. By 2008, the company was exporting parts and finished products to over 40 countries, and had a facility with an annual production capacity of 150,000 square meters of solar panels.

As the company looked to expand abroad, Mexico was the number one choice. The ball began to roll in July 2009 with an ini-tial investment of 4 million euros in a 3,000-square-meter factory that employs around 50 people in the manufacture of solar collec-tors for residential and industrial use.

Why Mexico? There are several reasons. The country is blessed with sunny weather nearly all year round, which translates into a steaming hot domestic market for a company that manufactures solar-powered water heaters, says director of Kioto’s Mexican operations, Arturo Meléndez Govea.

The company produces 23,000 square meters of solar collec-tors a year in Mexico, while 7 out of every 10 square meters manu-factured are exported.

According to Meléndez, “Mexico is strategically located and has efficient logistical infrastructure that facilitates exports to the US, Canada and Central and South America. Mexico also has political stability and workers skilled in trades like soldering, for example, which our industry demands.”

From its base in Western Mexico, Kioto Clear Energy exports components to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) through-out the continent, which are incorporated in the firms’ brands.

The sun has continued to shine on the business, especially in the US, where the bulk of Kioto’s output ends up. Here, the “heart” of Kioto’s collectors –a laser-soldered aluminum and copper grille that offers an unbeatable quality-price ratio– has been welcomed with open arms.

Kioto doesn’t just make solar panels for Mexico and other Latin American countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Panama, Uruguay and Paraguay, but entire systems that include tanks, pumps and valves. “We are in alliance with the top clients on each market,” says Meléndez with satisfaction.

Growth in Mexico has been exponential, just as occurred in Kioto’s native Austria. In addition to its foreign sales, the com-pany supplies solar water heating systems for a range of private and public sector entities, allowing them to make substantial savings while contributing to climate change mitigation efforts. These systems have a useful life of a decade on paper, but their real life expectancy is closer to 25 years.

Among Kioto’s government clients are two state peniten-tiaries, one in Durango and another in Michoacán, where the company has installed more than 100 systems –each one with the capacity to heat up 3,000 liters of water– to heat more than 300,000 liters of water per day.

Another important niche is the housing sector, where Kioto is working hand in hand with construction firms and the Mexican

government to promote the incorporation of its environmentally-friendly technology in government-subsidized homes. Under the Green Mortgage (Hipoteca Verde) program, Kioto has contracts for the installation of 5,000 top quality systems before year-end 2012.

“What you can find in Austria, you can find in Mexico, except that it is cheaper on the latter,” says Meléndez, adding that any company that uses hot water in its processes –tequila distiller-ies, milk pasteurizing plants, slaughterhouses, agricultural and pharmaceutical companies, among others– can benefit from the system. And judging from its expansion strategy for 2013, Kioto plans to serve them all with clean energy produced with the help of the Mexican sun. n

www.kioto.com

A leading manufacturer of solar collectors, Austrian company Kioto Clear Energy has discovered an excellent business opportunity under the Mexican sun.____by sandra robláguiphotos courtesy of kioto clear energy

From its base in Western Mexico, Kioto Clear Energy exports components to

OEMs throughout the continent, which are incorporated in the firms’ brands.


siliken, Basking in the sun of a Burgeoning Business

Manufacturers of solar panels are gathering around Mexico like moths to a flame. Not only does the coun-try offer competitive manufacturing conditions and skilled labor for this business sector, but it has high

levels of solar radiation and a communications network that fa-cilitates distribution on both the domestic and export markets, says Manuel Vegara Llanes, Director of Business Development in Latin America for the Spanish-based multinational Siliken.

This explains why the company has opted to expand its produc-tion facility in Tijuana, a city on Mexico’s northwest border with the US, and is currently working on a large-scale project for the construction and operation of a solar farm in Durango. Siliken also plans to manufacture equipment and components for the domes-tic and international markets.

Durango Solar is the name of the solar farm that will have an installed capacity of 100 MW, making it the largest of its kind in the world and Siliken’s most important project in Mexico, says Vegara Llanes.

A start-up investment of 70 million usd will get the farm up and running with an initial capacity of 30 MW, after which two busi-ness areas will be added: a facility for the manufacture of photo-voltaic solar panels in Durango and a solar farm in the municipal-ity of Canatlán, also in Durango, one of the country’s largest states.

The Durango Solar project enjoys the support of the state govern-ment, which has granted it the use of 303 hectares in the J. Guadalupe Aguilera cooperative in Canatlán under a gratuitous loan agreement.

Siliken is in no doubt that the farm will be a success and is al-ready negotiating the sale of the green energy it will generate with major public and private sector consumers, in addition to long-term electricity supply agreements with large Mexican corporations.

Durango Solar is a new venture, completely independent of Silik-en’s existing plant in Tijuana, Baja California, which remains the lo-gistical arm of its component manufacturing operations in America.

This is where the company first began operating in Mexico in February 2011, with two production lines for the manufacture of shelter-type photovoltaic modules. Shortly afterwards, three new production lines were added to meet demand. These five produc-tion lines, which employ about 300 people and are currently work-ing at their full combined capacity of 100 MW, were installed at a total cost of 25 million usd.

One of these production lines is specially designed to manufac-ture large photovoltaic modules whose increased capacity –above 300 MW– reduces installation costs, since fewer are needed to generate the same amount of electricity.

In Mexico, Siliken is working closely with agencies like ProMéxico to attract foreign investment, and has its own sales team that renders sales and post-sale services to installers of pho-tovoltaic systems.

According to Vegara Llanes, “Siliken is active in the manufac-ture of Mexican-made renewable technologies, the development of solar farms for the generation of electricity and the distribution of photovoltaic products.”

Just recently, he continues, the company was selected as the exclusive supplier of 8,700 panels (2.5 MW) for Spanish multina-tional Iberdrola’s solar farm in Cerro Prieto, Baja California.

The farm will be run by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which supplies electricity to most of the country, and will serve as a benchmark for parallel future projects. “This is the first time a project of such dimensions has been undertaken in Mexico, so it will be a learning experience for both us and the CFE,” says Vegara.

Meanwhile, Siliken aims to take an even larger slice of the Mexican market for photovoltaic products and the development of large-scale solar systems for the generation and sale of electricity.

In Vegara’s opinion, if Siliken continues to be in orbit, it could well become the undisputed leader of Mexico’s solar energy sector, while contributing to the development of a green-jobs industry.

Siliken is already contributing to the country’s sustainable development alongside the National Workers’ Housing Fund In-stitute (INFONAVIT), for which it has developed a photovoltaic kit at an accessible cost of approximately 750 usd to the final user, allowing millions of families to save on their electricity bills by simply installing a solar roof panel.

This is just the beginning of what is shaping up to be a sunny future for Siliken in a country where it has received a warm wel-come, and where the possibilities are as infinite as the universe, beyond the solar system. n

www.siliken.com

The Spanish-based multinational Siliken has found in Mexico a sunny future for its photovoltaic solar panel business. ____by sandra robláguiphoto courtesy of siliken

Durango Solar is the name of the solar farm that will

have an installed capacity of 100 MW, making it the

largest of its kind in the world and Siliken’s most

important project in Mexico, says Vegara Llanes.


“We don’t manufacture panels per se; we provide our engineer-ing experience and build solar panel packages. We are an integra-tor and we advise our clients so that they can receive the greatest benefit from their projects,” explains Francisco Solís, Business Director at Conermex.

“We serve two large segments: the market that is connected to the electricity network and the one that is off-grid. In the con-nected market you can interact with the external energy network, which is the one with the greatest growth in Mexico. Whereas in the isolated system market you work with completely independ-ent and specific panels, like those found in a country house or an ecotourism hotel that is far away from the electricity network, a solar platform,” Solís explains.

According to Solís, Mexico’s main market had been in isolated sys-tems, until in 2007 the government passed the Law for the Exploita-tion of Renewable Energies and Financing of the Energy Transition, in order to regulate solar equipment connected to the public network.

At present, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) does not purchase the energy produced by private individuals or compa-nies, but it is still an attractive way to generate a self-sustaining electricity resource.

“In Mexico, many foreign and national companies want to gen-erate clean energy. So, if we’re talking about a context, the market with the greatest growth for Conermex has been the equipment that is interconnected to the CFE network. Eighty percent of our sales come from the interactive CFE market and 20% from the independent market,” adds Solís.

For industrial customers, Conermex builds product packages that include panels, load controllers, lamps and refrigerators with special characteristics, supports for solar modules and water pumps that work by using solar energy.

In terms of the domestic market, Conermex offers specific products: solar panel kits that are completely modular and can grow one by one as household needs increase. They can also be

In recent years, Mexico has been able to project itself to the world as a country where the sun’s possibilities are practi-cally endless; it is fertile ground for renewable resources par excellence.

Claudio Estrada Gasca, Director of the Center for Energy Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), is confident that the sun could supply all of the country’s electricity needs by using only 0.14% of the surface area of two of its sun-soaked states: Chihuahua and Sonora.

In order for this to happen, several years of effort and resources are needed to acquire solar panels and cutting-edge technology. But Mexico is heading in the right direction, as Conermex, a manu-facturer of solar energy systems and components, senses.

The company designs everything from small systems for iso-lated applications to enormous projects for industrial use.

checked online using a monitoring device, which can be purchased separately.

Conermex wants to meet the needs of people seeking to save money and energy in their homes. The 220 economical homes with solar panels that were installed in Mexicali, Baja California are a clear example of this.

“This is not a very large line of business, it’s not gigantic, the na-tional sales volume is not that high, but our involvement is promi-nent and at the same time, we are preparing ourselves to meet the coming growth. We are witnessing effervescence in Mexico’s solar market,” Solís says.

“The strategy that we have practiced will be available for those looking for ways to save energy. In terms of housing developments, I still don’t see anyone betting on that type of technology directly; however, what I do know is that they are financing the energy sys-tem through a housing credit, which represents progress,” he adds.

In total, Conermex sales tripled from 2010 to 2011, with rapid growth. This increase is a symptom of the global renewable energy industry, since the trend is to substitute contaminant sources for new technologies.

In 2008, the world’s electricity consumption totaled 15 tera-watts (TW) and is expected to grow to 30 TW by 2050. The only sources that could meet these demands are renewable, the sun being one of the most important.

“You can feel it in the media, in the people, that the subject of energy is relevant. On the other hand, the costs of conventional fossil fuel energy are not only more expensive, but also more dif-ficult to access. So the alternatives are trendy, but they also repre-sent an important development target,” Solís says.

In Mexico alone, an estimated 10 and 15 MW of electricity were displaced through solar technology this year, a figure that is expected to double in coming years. n

conermex.com

For instance, it was responsible for the pump systems that supply water to indigenous communities in Mexico, numerous oil platform projects with Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and the Interconnect-ed System that is linked to the conventional network in Teya, Yucatán.

In 2010, it was also responsible for the solar technology used in the interconnection project to provide lighting for Juarez Park, in Puebla.

One of its most successful projects, due to its size, is the photovoltaic system for the Zacatecas Council of Science, Technology and Innovation (COZCYT). A power plant in es-sence, it functions by converting solar light into electricity, adapting it or connecting it to the electricity network for regu-lar consumption. Thus, the solar complex became the seventh largest in the country with a production capacity of 180 kilo-watts (kW), allowing it to provide energy for four government entities and annual savings of 1 million pesos.

the effeRvescence of the sunIn operation since 2009 and with distributors throughout the country, Conermex is responsible for providing solar panels that generate a total of 3.5 million watts per year in Mexico. ____by gustavo aréchigaphotos courtesy of conermex

The company designs

everything from small systems

for isolated applications to

enormous projects for industrial use.


soaking Up the advantages of a sunny Country

A YouTube video posted by solar panel manufacturer Energías Renovables de México (ERDM) presents a peerless narrative of its pioneering work in promoting photovoltaic energy in Mexico.

The camera documents the process of delivering dozens of photovoltaic modules that were assembled by ERDM in its plant in San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz, to the fishing community of Martín Prieto, in the Veracruz municipality of Alvarado.

Delivering island system panels, which have their own energy converter and battery that provide users with direct electricity without needing a connection to the Federal Electricity Commis-sion (CFE) network, seems difficult: fishermen and technicians transport modules and solar refrigerators on fishing boats that navigate the waters of the Papaloapan River to complete the deliv-ery and begin the installation of the technology that will radically change the lives of Martín Prieto’s inhabitants: the residents will have electricity in their homes.

“ERDM grew out of the necessity of certain areas of the country where it is difficult to access electric power. The company has spe-cialized in island systems that use battery backup for communities that do not have access to the national electricity network,” says Vladimir Ruiz, an engineer who is the company’s Project Manager.

Although solar energy projects are still considered expensive, especially photovoltaic, ERDM has demonstrated their feasibility in communities where it is technically difficult –if not impossible– to bring in the CFE network.

The investment in photovoltaic modules in Martín Prieto came to 2 million pesos (around 150,000 usd), compared to the over 30 million pesos (close to 2.25 million usd) it would have cost to make the CFE connection, according to calculations by Vladimir Ruiz.

A sun-soAked counTry The tourists that arrive in Mexico from around the world are not mistaken: the country is enviably sunny almost all year-round.

According to figures furnished by the Special Program for the Exploitation of Renewable Energies published by the Min-istry of Energy (SENER), Mexico has an average annual radia-tion of 5 kilowatts/hour (kWh) per square meter –with an index of 4.4 kWh per square meter in the center of the country and 6.3 in the north.

Sonora, Chihuahua and the Baja California peninsula hold the highest potential for generating electricity by taking advantage of solar radiation, due to their vast size and weather conditions throughout the year.

The SENER document recognizes that taking advantage of such a renewable, clean and endless energy –the sun will be around for several million years yet– has barely been explored; it estimates Mexico’s installed capacity at 18.5 MW, which produces 8,794 megawatts/hour (MWh) per year.

“Globally, the generation capacity of photovoltaic cells is around 6,000 MW, installed mainly in Germany, Japan and the US,” reveals the report, based on data from the International En-ergy Agency (IEA).

Indeed, the greatest use of photovoltaic technologies in Mexico has been in rural communities like Martín Prieto, in Veracruz. Ac-cording to ERDM estimates, there are approximately 7 million peo-ple who live in areas without access to the CFE network, says Ruiz.

PhoTovolTAic energy TAkes cenTer sTAgeERDM is trying to gain influence on another important front: the consolidation of photovoltaic projects with a CFE interconnection.

The company, which was founded almost 10 years ago by two German partners, discovered new development possibilities in Mexico after the Law for the Exploitation of Renewable Energies and Financing of the Energy Transition (LAERFTE) was signed toward the end of the last decade.

Since then, ERDM has sold photovoltaic technology –modules that are assembled in Mexico from components manufactured in

Germany, Austria, the US and Canada– to the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), the Grupo México mining corporation, the National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT), the Lázaro Cardenas port terminal, the San Isidro mill, hotels, schools and social assistance housing builders.

“This is only a small step. We believe that much more is needed to really boost the photovoltaic industry,” says Ruiz, who considers that with the announcement of LAERFTE, agreements and adjust-ments will be generated in Mexico to advance toward that goal.

An important step would be for industry and citizens to decide to implement this technology in factories, offices and homes. According to Ruiz, in order for this to happen, the price of the technology must decrease, as well as the generating cost for each kWh and its sale price.

For the Mexican market, Ruiz says it is important to know how long it will take to recoup the initial investment that, when dealing with large-scale projects, is obviously a considerable figure for a company’s finance department.

ERDM’s strategy is to highlight the contributions of private individuals to the environment by reducing contaminants de-rived from fossil fuels, and emphasizing the future savings in the monthly electricity bill.

Those at ERDM are definitely aware that, in the short term, there will be a boom in photovoltaic energy in Mexico, and the company is betting on being part of that scenario.

“Our philosophy is to offer highly competitive prices with high quality products, given our need to guarantee that they will pro-duce energy for more than 20 or 25 years,” says Ruiz. “We consid-er ourselves to be well placed in the market, we have a family of more than 200 business partners and we are in partnership with a very large German company that also manufactures panels there –Biosun– to be able to make large-scale plants,” he adds. n

erdm-solar.com

One more point must be added in Mexico’s favor: the intense and continuous solar radiation that the territory receives all year long. The sun is what will drive the new electrical energy generation strategies toward a future with lower fossil fuel consumption. ____by omar magañaphotos courtesy of energías renovables de méxico

Although solar energy projects are still considered

expensive, especially photovoltaic, ERDM

has demonstrated their feasibility in communities

where it is technically difficult –if not impossible–

to bring in the CFE network.


The renewable World of ge

In less than 80 years, humanity has taken a quantum leap regarding the way people use certain resources for survival. Even though there is still a long way to go, the race towards renewable energies has already begun.

General Electric (GE), which began manufacturing electric light bulbs in 1896, has the proof that this trend is irreversible. For this reason, the company created GE Energy, a division that focuses on green technology and that has thrown amazing results. This branch began operations in Mexico in 1929, and now has 21 plants, 8 service centers and 35,000 employees in the country.

This GE division involves three business cells: GE Power & Water, GE Energy Management and GE Oil & Gas. With this struc-ture, it covers the entire spectrum of the Latin American green trend and the manufacture of green products.

Its results are tangible; to date, more than 80 projects from the GE portfolio have been certified as low energy consumption products.

Two essential examples of GE Energy technology are the car-bon cleaning process, or the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, which uses less water to produce cleaner fuel with lower emissions; and wind generators. Their combined benefit adds up to 18.3 million tons of greenhouse gases per year that are no longer being released into the environment –an amount similar to that released by more than 3 million cars.

Both cases are relevant to Mexico, since GE Energy’s opera-tions in the country also include Ecomagination, a platform of

innovation and scientific research that leverages the company’s green products.

Ecomagination represents GE’s global commitment to imagine and build solutions that solve current environmental challenges and benefit clients and society in general.

An Ecomagination premise indicates that a company’s finan-cial performance may be integrated with ecology, in order to ac-celerate its profit growth. GE knows that Mexico provides fertile ground for driving this long-range vision.

“Mexico is fortunate to be a country that boasts strong winds and intense solar radiation year-round. It also has a government that rec-ognizes the advantages of investing in efficient and renewable energy, where laws and incentives have been implemented. A good country, good resources and a good government that is sending investment signals towards this sector,” says Robert Pérez, Director of GE Energy.

According to Pérez, one of the company’s key business lines is wind energy –GE is a world leader in this sector, to the extent that it turns on one new wind turbine generator approximately every three hours.

Wind is so important to GE that since it entered the industry through its acquisition of Enron Wind 10 years ago, it has installed 18,000 turbines and has increased the worldwide business capac-ity from 500 MW to 28 gigawatts (GW).

A few months ago, Vic Abate, Vice President of GE’s Energía Renovable, said that “In the last decade, the company has invested

2 billion usd in the wind industry. This investment has trans-formed the industry while making wind an energy source that is renewable, reliable, competitive and carbon-free.”

At present, GE is in the process of executing its first large-scale wind project in Mexico. It has set up a wind farm in the southern part of Monterrey, Nuevo León in the municipality of Santa Cata-rina, with a production capacity of 22 MW. There, with an invest-ment of 48 million usd, Next Energy México will install eight GE wind turbines of 103 meters of diameter that will supply energy to the municipalities of Monterrey, Santa Catarina, Escobedo, Apo-daca, García and Los Ramones, through a 20-year contract.

None of this could be self-sustaining without a consistent research effort. In Mexico, GE Energy guarantees its leadership through the Center for Advanced Engineering (GEIQ), which has been located in Querétaro since 1999. It is the largest complex in Mexico, home to approximately 1,400 engineers.

The Center focuses on designing airplane and energy gen-eration turbines, and currently works alongside academic institu-tions in seven Master’s programs and one PhD program.

“GE did not have a clear expectation of what this Engineering Center would be. But the quality of the engineering and the person-nel was very good, so as the decade progressed, it extended substan-tially until it reached the current number of engineers,” says Pérez.

Other projects that GE is working on in Mexico are related to the generation of efficient energy through biogas and biomass. As

Since it first came to Mexico, General Electric has been an engineering pioneer. Now, this US company leads efforts in renewable energy technologies through its three divisions: GE Power & Water, GE Energy Management and GE Oil & Gas.____by gustavo aréchigaphotos courtesy of ge

stated by Pérez, the country produces approximately 500 MW per year by converting sugar cane waste into electricity.

In addition, the company is working on high-efficiency cogen-eration through natural gas turbines, and supplies solar panels and equipment for residential and industrial use.

Another project which was announced recently involves the two aeroderivative gas turbines to generate electricity that GE will install in the new ALPEK Petrochemical Complex plant in Ver-acruz, in collaboration with the Mexican government.

Furthermore, GE has just launched its WattStation Connect, an application that will facilitate the administration of everything related to recharging electric vehicles –from the car’s charge per-centage to remotely activating the charger and finding out the elec-tricity rate at a given time. According to company estimates, 25% of vehicles circulating worldwide will be electric or connectable by 2020, while 90% of them will be fully functional without fos-sil fuels by 2040. Some WattStation Connect sites are already in place in Mexico, mainly in Mexico City and Aguascalientes, as a re-sult of agreements signed between Nissan and local governments.

GE Energy offers products and services in more than 120 coun-tries. In Mexico, it has been in operation for more than 90 years and the company is determined to continue playing a leading role in the country’s energy history. n

www.ge-energy.com

At present, GE is in the process of executing its first

large-scale wind project in Mexico, a wind farm in the

southern part of Monterrey, Nuevo León, where eight GE wind turbines will be

installed to supply energy to several municipalities.


a green Industry, a Compatible

Company

The transition towards a carbon-free economy is the great-est industrial challenge of this century; a challenge that requires radical changes at every level, from the manu-facture of more efficient individual components, to the

development of comprehensive, environmentally-friendly solutions. For Barbara Kux, Sustainability Manager and Managing Board

Member of Siemens, this pressing need can be summed up in one sentence: reinventing the entire industrial infrastructure. The whole deal? Yes.

“While economic volatility can distract us and the slow nego-tiations on climate change can discourage us, this is a goal we can-not lose sight of. There is a huge incentive to tackle this challenge: investments in energy efficiency often pay for themselves in the short term and growth in green markets and renewable energies proves a promising business case for our clients,” affirms Kux.

In this light, Siemens has integrated renewable energies into its product portfolio.

Since its foundation, more than 160 years ago, the company’s philosophy has been to create sustainable value through solutions and services, which offer clients security and innovation in stra-tegic areas.

To remain consistent with its strategies, Siemens unveiled a sustainable corporate building on June 4, 2012 named “Two Pa-tios”, in the Polanco district of Mexico City.

The company’s new headquarters comprises 17,000 square me-ters of office space, required an investment of over 10 million usd

and will be the first building in Mexico to receive a double certifi-cation in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).

With this new building, Siemens seeks to prove that envi-ronmental protection and corporate profitability are two fac-tors that can go together. As an example, the new offices have 105,000 LED light bulbs, which will allow a reduction of over 30% in electrical energy consumption, with a maximum illumi-nation of 8 watts per square meter.

While Siemens is putting its house in order to adapt to the new challenges of the 21st century, its energy department is undertaking important business ventures. Siemens Energy re-cently won a contract to supply a SGT-750 class industrial gas turbine for Energía MK KF, a subsidiary of the textile manufac-turer Grupo Kaltex.

This high efficiency turbine will be up and running by October 2013 and will generate electricity for all of Grupo Kaltex’s facili-ties. The project comprises a 36 MW capacity plant, which will be located in Altamira, Tamaulipas.

Furthermore, in the last three years Siemens has invested close to 100 million usd per year to extend its reach throughout Mexico, intensifying its efforts in three new research and development centers in Nuevo León and Querétaro.

But the green revolution, which Siemens hopes to lead, goes way beyond this. “We are very much focused on the industry, but we also concentrate on private consumers. We offer various products for high efficiency or low energy consumption. But we

also have solutions for the residential market, for example selling LED lights together with Osram,” comments Christian Koegl, Vice President of the company’s energy sector.

In Mexico, Siemens’ green dream is backed by 7,000 workers, whose job is concentrated in two of the company’s biggest plants in the country: one for electric motors in Guadalajara, Jalisco and the other for efficient transformers in Guanajuato.

As well as highly-skilled human talent, Mexico offers Siemens unique conditions to drive forward its product and green solu-tions portfolio. “Mexico has a great advantage: international trade agreements with over 44 countries and, in addition to its location, costs here are very competitive. All of this gives us the advantage of exporting to the US, which is the world’s largest market, Canada and the rest of the world,” Koegl explains.

In Mexico, Siemens owns 13 production plants, and their busi-ness relations reach the rest of Latin America through their af-filiates in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Just as the country has been a key player for Siemens over the last 118 years, all signs show it will continue to be so during this transition towards a greener industry, which the company is driv-ing forward. There will be no need to wait for the benefits. In 2011 alone, Siemens’ green portfolio allowed clients to cease emitting around 317 million tons of CO2 worldwide. n

www.energy.siemens.com

Siemens began its work in Mexico over 118 years ago, when it lit up the emblematic Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. Today, the company

has more than 8,000 employees and is at the forefront of implementing green technologies for industrial use.

____by gustavo aréchiga

photos courtesy of siemens


Mexico has all the necessary ingredients to plant fields of wind power, the most widespread renew-able energy in the world. The country’s regulatory environment is at the forefront of Latin America

and makes it possible to establish a successful market. Mexico also enjoys economic stability and adequate infrastructure for electricity distribution. Furthermore, the country possesses some 120 sites suitable for generating thousands of megawatts (MW) from wind sources, according to the Director of SoWiTec de México, Alejandro Robles Hüe.

“It is a market with great potential and perfect conditions for a sustainable renewable energy project,” expressed the executive.

These are the reasons why since 2008, the German company has been working in Mexico to develop the conditions for generating 5,000 MW, both with their own projects and through partnerships with other private institutions.

Founded by Frank Hummel in 1993, SoWiTec Group has always been dedicated to the promotion of renewable energy. It currently has a presence in the major energy markets around the world, with offices in Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Peru, Russia, Uruguay and Mexico. Altogether, around 100 specialists are work-ing to develop a 35,000 MW capacity.

In Mexico, the electricity that will arise from the company’s wind farms will light up the homes of about 8 million people.

So what does SoWiTec do exactly? The universe created the wind, not wind farms, that much is true. The role of the German company in Mexico is to follow in nature’s footsteps for its own benefit, and also make money: “Our goal is to find places with wind power potential,” reveals Robles Hüe.

To make this possible, since 2008 the firm’s specialists have been traveling the country measuring the strength of the wind and carry-ing out projections, environmental impact studies and research into the electricity-generating potential. Afterwards, they rent the plac-es where the turbine blades will turn faster, mostly in rural areas.

“We are working all over the country: in Sonora, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, the Bajío region, Campeche…,” adds SoWiTec de México’s Director. He recognizes that the process of negotiation with the landowners where wind power has potential is a long one, as many of them never imagined that the wind that rakes the grass on their properties could be used to generate electricity. “We are well-accepted in the field because we include a number of special-ists,” says Robles Hüe. In most of the common lands and small properties SoWiTec has rented, it occupies less than 5% of the area and, in turn, repairs or creates roads that benefit the owners of those tracts of land.

The prestige of the company has won them the support of lending wind turbines to institutions that are willing to finance the business of generating power through them.

In early 2012, Santander Bank announced financial backing for the installation of four SoWiTec wind farms in Mexico. With a capacity to generate between 650 and 850 MW in total, the projects will be completed in 2014, in the states of San Luis Potosí (160 MW), Nuevo León (200 MW) and Coahuila (340 MW, with two projects),

all in northern Mexico. Together this will generate electricity to supply about 1.3 million people.

Through Santander Capital Structuring (SCS), the agency re-sponsible for capital investments in renewable energy projects, energy efficiency and climate change, the Spanish-owned bank will invest all the capital required to develop these farms, right up to the “ready to build” stage.

SCS and SoWiTec de México will each retain 50% of the profits from the project, which will operate under an electricity self-suffi-ciency scheme and that, once ready, will be sold to long-term inves-tors, Santander has reported.

In addition to this lender, the German energy multinational is also working with New Energy Clean Energy Mexico (ENEL), on projects that will be ready in 2015, generating a total of 1,800 MW at various sites in Mexico.

“A lot of work has been done and there is more to come,” says Alejandro Robles Hüe: “ In Mexico, wind is a new technology, with almost 1,200 MW installed, mostly in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca in the southeast. As the sites evolve, demand will boost growth. We’ve just gotten started.”

Since 2008 the firm’s specialists have been

traveling the country measuring the strength of the wind and carrying out

projections, environmental impact studies and

research into the electricity-generating potential.

The Director of SoWiTec de México expects that over the coming years, Mexico will see large private capital investments in renew-able energy, of which wind will comprise 30% or 40% of the total. “It’s the ideal terrain; wind abounds and the laws of the country are focusing on the involvement of private companies.”

According to the executive, those who are most interested in us-ing wind power are big companies like Cemex, Bimbo, Wal-Mart and Coca Cola, which have corporate mandates to purchase renewable energy. It is expected that in the years to come green electricity will also reach small and medium enterprises and ordinary households.

There is no question about it. The winds are surely blowing in the right direction for Mexico. n

www.sowitec.com

an agent of the Wind

for the Benefit of the Planet

In Mexico there are at least 120 sites with wind energy potential, and laws facilitating investment in this area are developing fast. SoWiTec

is one company that is starting to reap these benefits.____

by sandra robláguiphoto archive


Kyocera’s Pioneering Solar Energy Business Gears up for Further Growth

You may be familiar with Kyocera, a Japanese manufac-turer of microelectronics packaging, industrial ceram-ics, cutting tools, solar panels, cell phones and office equipment. What you may not know is that Kyocera

boasts a rich history of operations in Mexico, since Kyocera Mexicana began manufacturing products in Tijuana, Baja Cali-fornia in 1989.

Kyocera Mexicana has proved successful with a variety of manufacturing processes in the past 23 years. The company’s hard-working employees in Tijuana have helped improve yield, reduce cycle time and lower defect rates on some of Kyocera’s most important products by executing complex technology transfers, adhering to the core principles of con-tinued process improvement and maintaining a “customer-first” attitude.

“Tijuana has played a key role in Kyocera’s expansion, thanks to its pool of talented employees who have a strong commitment to producing high-quality products,” says John Rigby, President of Ky-ocera International, Inc., the firm’s San Diego-based North Ameri-can headquarters and holding company. “Support from Mexican leaders and employees has made us stronger, and allowed us to serve more customers with high-value-added manufacturing.”

One of the latest success stories at Kyocera’s Tijuana facility is solar module manufacturing.

Kyocera has been in the renewable energy business since the 1970s, when Dr. Kazuo Inamori started researching sapphire crystal-growth technology and photovoltaic cells. Inamori, who had founded Kyocera in Kyoto, Japan in 1959 as a producer of advanced ceramics, believed crystal-growth technology could be applied to growing silicon crystals. When the OPEC oil embargo brought the global economy to a standstill in 1973, he became con-vinced that renewable energy would become a global imperative.

Inamori’s instincts were spot on. By 1979, Kyocera had become the first company in the world to successfully deliver silicon crystal-ribbon solar cells using the Edge-defined Film-fed Growth (EFG) method.

Over the years, Kyocera has developed production processes and in-house quality evaluation systems that allow the company to ensure high quality at every phase of manufacturing.

In 1982, the company was the first to mass-produce multi-crystalline silicon solar cells using the casting method, which is now the main technique used throughout the world.

This year marks the 37th anniversary of Kyocera’s involvement in solar energy. Global demand for clean energy has created an ex-plosion of new companies in fields ranging from geothermal power to biofuels. Although expectations are high, only a few companies worldwide have a long tradition of providing reliable renewable-energy solutions. Kyocera is among the most notable.

Kyocera began solar module production in Tijuana in 2004. In 2007, the company broke ground on a new, large-scale facility there as part of an aggressive plan to more than double its annual solar module manufacturing capacity. The resulting world-class production center –a two-story plant with 223,000 square feet of production space– was inaugurated in 2009.

In 2010, the facility put the icing on the cake by installing a 100-kilowatt solar electric generating system on its roof. Now, in addition to manufacturing solar panels in Tijuana, Kyocera is producing clean, renewable power that flows directly from the sun through its solar array and into the power grid.

Today, this high-tech production complex in Tijuana is Ky-ocera’s chief manufacturer of solar modules for North America; and the plant’s production capacity will continue to grow as de-mand for solar energy increases.

GlObAl exPAnSiOnSolar energy growth is inevitable. With more than 1.6 billion people worldwide lacking access to electricity, few technologies are in greater demand. Making solar energy more affordable is a matter of enhancing technologies, raising the energy conversion

efficiency of solar cells, and increasing mass production volumes.Kyocera has developed a global production framework to man-

ufacture solar panels near major markets, thus minimizing the environmental impact and costs of shipping bulky solar modules from manufacturer to installation site. The company’s Tijuana facility supports US, Canadian and Mexican markets with its high-quality manufacturing processes.

Solar power offers a hedge against the rising cost of electricity, and serves as an environmental countermeasure to acid rain, ozone layer depletion and rising carbon levels. The US Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) estimates that each gigawatt of fossil-fuel elec-tricity replaced by solar power will reduce carbon dioxide as much as a forest covering about 289 square miles.

Due to their high reliability and efficiency, Kyocera modules have been employed in various installations ranging from utility-scale power plants, public and industrial facilities to residential homes in virtually every nation of the globe.

“People all over the world are demanding an energy source that’s affordable, reliable and safe for the environment,” says Steve Hill, President of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “Thanks to the quality and dedication of our colleagues in Tijuana, that is exactly what Ky-ocera delivers.”

While most of the panels Kyocera builds in Tijuana are cur-rently exported, the company believes strongly in the potential of Mexico’s solar market. “Kyocera is ready to serve this robust market with cost-effective solar solutions, so Mexican consumers can enjoy clean, renewable energy from the sun,” concludes David Hester, Kyocera Mexicana’s President. n

www.kyocera.com

Mexico plays a strategic role in Kyocera’s solar module manufacturing plans, not only as a production hub but also as a potential growing market for the company’s solar solutions. ____photos courtesy of kyocera mexicana

Kyocera’s production complex in Tijuana is

the company’s chief manufacturer of solar

modules for North America; and the plant’s production

capacity will continue to grow as demand for solar

energy increases.


equitable, Profitable and ecological

In 2009, Gustavo Tomé, founder of Solartec, decided to focus his enterprising spirit on a project that he is still excited about today: photovoltaic systems.

When they started out, Tomé and his partners didn’t know much about generating electricity from renewable sources. All they knew was that, at least in the near future, electric-ity was going to be in increasingly greater demand as per capita consumption and the world population continued to grow. The only thing that was destined to change –and soon– was how we generated it.

It is estimated that 20 years from now, between 10% and 25% of the electricity we consume will be solar-generated. In this ter-rain, Mexico has several points in its favor. For instance, Mexico receives twice as much solar radiation as Germany –which has the highest installed capacity in the world in terms of photovoltaic systems– and rates among the top five countries in the world with the greatest potential to capture solar radiation. To put this into perspective, if we covered just 1% of the northern state of Sonora with solar panels, we could generate enough electricity to supply the entire country’s needs.

So, Tomé and his partners put their faith in the sun, a virtually inexhaustible and impartial source of energy –unlike other natural resources, which are distributed unevenly, the sun shines equita-bly on the whole planet.

From its base in Guanajuato, Solartec has set itself the goal of be-coming the benchmark for the global renewable energy industry, with products that offer its clients optimum returns on their investment.

Manufactured in compliance with the highest quality stand-ards, its products have UL and Electrical Power Saving Trust Fund Label (FIDE) certification. They also comply with the IEC-61215 standard and, pending one final audit process, will have ISO-9000 certification.

Today, the company is highly specialized and invests heavily in the development of new technologies at its Environmental and Energy Sustainability Innovation Center in Irapuato, Guana-juato, into which over 4.5 million usd have been channeled. Here, Solartec’s R&D team works on technologies that can be patented and developed in Mexico, although its lines of research are geared mainly toward the development of third-generation solar cells and improving the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.

Already its research has translated into tangible consumer products like garden lamps and accessories, solar battery chargers, plague and insect control equipment, outdoor lighting systems and a range of solar-powered accessories.

In addition to promoting a culture of sustainability by collabo-rating on programs with the authorities and academic and social associations, one of the solutions the company offers the Mexican market is a kit for remote rural communities that costs just 110 usd and that can power up to three light bulbs.

Another product it sells in partnership with the Ministry of Ag-riculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food’s (SA-GARPA) Shared Risk Trust is a solar-powered pump that extracts water from the subsoil. Used for irrigation purposes, the pump allows farmers to produce all year round, as opposed to depending on seasonal crops.

Solartec has also begun working with property developers like GEO and URBI, and offers a homeowners’ solar kit under the Green Mortgage program operated by the National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT). Alternatively, homeown-ers can apply for financing under the company’s own Enercity

plan, which includes a diagnosis of electricity requirements and the adaptation and installation of the system. “Contracting Ener-city is as simple as ordering a pizza,” says Tomé.

But the residential sector isn’t the only one Solartec has tack-led. Its corporate portfolio includes names like Wal-Mart, where it installed the county’s first hybrid system at the company’s corpo-rate offices. Designed entirely by Mexican engineers, the system is powered by a combination of solar photovoltaic and wind energy.

Solartec has also installed PV systems at several Wal-Mart stores around the country, with Water Capital pitching in on the financing side, and at some ten HSBC branches. Sometimes the panels serve a dual function. For instance, at one particular HSBC branch in Mexico City, the panels double up as a facade, and in the case of the Schneider plant, they serve as roofing for the company’s parking lot.

With sales of 20 million usd in 2011 and projected sales of 37 million usd for 2012, Solartec is well positioned to continue con-verting golden opportunities into clean electricity in Mexico’s renewable energy sector. n

www.solartec.mx

The brainchild of a Mexican entrepreneur who not only wanted to spin a profit, but foster a culture of sustainability, Solartec is a well-positioned, world-class company engaged in research and development in the renewable energy industry.____by david ricardo vizcarraphotos courtesy of solartec


As of February 2012, Mexico had a renewable energy installed capacity of

14,324 MW

22.3% of the country’s installed capacity to generate electricity comes from renewable sources.

Mexico has the goal to

increase the share of

clean technologies

in total generation capacity to

35% in 2024.

Currently, there are over 200 opened and under construction plants for electricity generation from renewable sources in Mexico.

SOURCE: PROMÉXICO

Installed Capacity

2012(MW)

Estimated 2025 (MW)

Mexican

RENEWABLEEnergy

Located across the so-called “Sun Belt”, Mexico is among

the countries with the highest solar power generation

potential worldwide.

Wind power potential in Mexico is

estimated at

71,000 MW

11,794

1,215

WIN

D

Mexico’s hydroelectric

potential is

53,000 MW

15,720

11,603

HYDRO

ELEC

TRIC

Mexico is the world’s 4th geothermal energy producer

10.9

%In

done

sia17

.3%

Phi

lippi

nes

28.7

%U

S

The energy potential in Mexico is

greater than

40,000 MW

1,094

958

GEOT

HER

MA

L

8.7%

1,072

548

BIO

MA

SS

69

2,173

SOLA

R

The solar radiation

potential in the northwest of the

country can exceed6 kWh/m2

per day

The solar radiation

potential in the rest of the country averages

between4.5-6 kWh/m2

per day

Photovoltaic

High-concentration

States with the highestnumber of projects

Oaxaca

Veracruz

Negocios figures

info

gr

APh

ic o

lde

ma

r

48 Negocios ProMéxico The Lifestyle.The CompleTe Guide To

The mexiCan Way of life

the Lifestyle BriefsPage 50

the Lifestyle report Mexico in Expo Yeosu 2012Page 52

48 Hours in...VeracruzPage 58

the Lifestyle Feature The Good LandMexican Organic ProductsPage 62

InterviewThe City on a ThreadWalking the Tightropewith Betsabée RomeroPage 66

DesignWhen Acapulco Conquered the WorldThe Acapulco ChairPage 70

Mexico according to...Enrique OlveraPage 72

54

there is Something in the aira Conversation with mario molina

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SOURCE: PROMÉXICO WITH DATA FROM FDI MARKETS

AND INVESTMENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS

Between 2003 and 2012,Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

in the Mexican renewableenergy industry totaled

6.9 billion USD

Foreign

DirectInvestment

Mexico is the main supplier of photovoltaic solar modules in Latin America, with a produc-tion capacity of more than 276 MW

According to KPMG, in 2011 Mexico offered 12.9% savings in

manufacturing costs of advanced batteries for the green energy

sector, compared to the US.

Mexico is alsoan attractive destination

for the manufactureof clean technologies:

1

2003

$750

1

2006

$311

1

2007

$10

4

3

2008

$912

4

2009$1

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2010

$94

7

3

2012

$1,0

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2011

$1,8

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Year

$Mil

lion

USD Number

of projects

States with thehighest FDI records

Baja CaliforniaTamaulipas

ChihuahuaOaxaca

Nuevo León

Majorforeign investors

US DenmarkSpain France Japan

The Lifestyle Briefs The Lifestyle Briefs

MOBILITY

Car Sharing as a Cure for Traffic Congestion in Mexico City In places like Mexico City, where smog, congestion and high maintenance costs should be enough to deter us from buying a car, public transport has always been the next best thing… until someone dangled a carrot in front of us. _____by nadia escalante

Carrot is a car-sharing service that began operating in mid-June 2012 in Mexico City with Nissan March automobiles and X-Trail SUVs. The premise is simple enough: it’s better to have several people using one car than each one of them driving individually. And the benefits couldn’t be more obvious: fewer cars on our roads reduces congestion and makes it easier to get from A to B, not to mention mitigating the environmental impact.

One shared car can replace up to 20 privately owned cars on our roads, making Carrot a sustainable alternative to owning an automobile. In fact, according to the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, for every shared car there are 15 fewer cars on our roads and users drive 31% less than they would if they owned a car of their own.

Several studies conducted in Canada and the US corroborate that between 15% and 29% of users of car sharing or pooling

services get rid of their own car, while 25% to 61% put off buy-ing a new one.

This is the first car-sharing program of its kind in Mexico City, but Carrot isn’t alone in Latin America: similar initiatives include SigoCar in Costa Rica and Zazcar in Brazil. To rent a car, whether it’s for a few hours or the whole day, all prospective users have to do is register at Carrot’s webpage. Once their application has been ap-proved, they must locate their nearest station and book a car at the same site or by telephone.

Aside from being a cheaper alternative to owning a car, Car-rot is a decisive step toward reducing traffic congestion and CO2 emissions. The hope is that this sustainable transport system will catch on and be replicated in other Mexican cities.

www.carrot.mx

ARCHITECTURE

MEXIC-ARTE Designed by Fernando Romero_____FREE, the firm founded by Mexican architect Fernando Rome-ro, has unveiled its plans for the new Museum of Mexican and Mexican-American Art (Mexic-Arte) in Austin, Texas. Romero, who designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, has taken his inspiration from the Aztec Calendar to come up with a cylindrical building that will house a collection of about 1,500 works of art over an area of 54,000 square meters. The exterior of the building will feature a LED lighting system that can be used to create images for specific art projects or display insti-tutional advertising on what looks set to become Austin’s new architectural landmark.

www.fr-ee.orgmexic-artemuseum.org

TOURISM

BLUE DIAMOND RIVIERA MAYAAn Exclusive New Resort in Playa del Carmen_____Conveniently located 40 minutes south of the Cancun Interna-tional Airport and 10 minutes north of Playa del Carmen, Blue Diamond Riviera Maya is Grupo BlueBay’s first “Special Cat-egory” property in Mexico.

This recently opened adults-only resort reflects a new trend in luxury vacations that has been embraced by the Spanish chain.

Boasting top-of-the-range amenities and 128 finely-appointed junior suites and suites, the complex respects the natural path of freshwater streams that flow from an underground cenote (underwater sinkhole), while limestone and tropical woods merge harmoniously against unparalleled views of the Mexican Caribbean.

www.bluediamondrivieramaya.comph

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52 Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle 53

mexico in exPo yeosu 2012

The Mayan culture is represented in the Mexican Pavilion in Expo Yeosu 2012, where Mexico’s biodiversity and richness can be explored from May 12 to August 12, 2012.

Expo Yeosu Korea 2012, located in the southern part of the Republic of Korea, is host to pavilions designed by 104 countries from all over the world. The Interna-tional Expo is showcased by the “Big-O” core facility

for exhibitions and entertainment, a huge fountain over the sea, an aquarium containing robotic fish as well as actual fish, among other facilities. The participating countries and international organizations are set to demonstrate their prowess in marine sci-ence and technology during the 93-day run, from May 12 to August 12, 2012. Expo Yeosu’s central theme is dedicated to the “Living Ocean and Coast,” accordingly, the event will help shed light on the knowledge and advancement of technology concerning the ocean and coast, and identify ways to solve challenges.

This year’s edition is particularly important for Mexico and the Republic of Korea, being that both nations are celebrating their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The Mexican Pavilion is located in the Atlantic Ocean area, within the international pavil-ion. The concept of this space is to show Mexico through its bio-diversity, for instance, the oceans seen through Mayan eyes. The Mayan culture is represented in the entire pavilion. However, the main attraction of this concept can be better grasped by entering a theater style area, where different images of Mexico’s richness and diversity can be explored.

fACAdeThe Mayan civilization built awe-inspiring temples and pyramids. The facade of Mexico’s Pavilion plays tribute to this architectural heritage, by displaying 10 Mayan icons in its walls. The year 2012 is extremely important for the Mayan culture. According to their

calendar, on December 21, 2012 spirits will descend from heaven and a cycle will conclude. This stage implies a cosmic regeneration and the beginning of a new era. It also sets the conditions to restore balance on earth and the oceans.

intrOdUCtiOn AreA In this area, four plasma screens display different videos with gen-eral aspects about Mexico. Its economy, investment opportunities, culture, tourism, gastronomy, sustainability and biodiversity are nicely unveiled.

entrAnCe tUnnelThe entrance to the Pavilion’s main theater is a tunnel display-ing several Mayan icons. It mimics the experience of entering a sacred temple or pyramid. A guide welcomes all the visitors with a “Copal Cup”, used by the Mayas as protection from the spirits and as a soul purifier.

theAter ShOw AreAA blue light, combined with different sounds and sensations coming from a water curtain installed in front of the main screen, create a particular feeling of being inside an ocean. As the show goes on, images of Mayan culture, gastronomy, tourism, econ-omy, investment, sustainability and biodiversity in Mexico are displayed on the teaser placed above the main screen. The “Mexico” brand letters are also displayed, one by one, until we get a complete shot of the country’s six-letter word. A Mexican guide simulates the sound of the Mayan snail shell, which was linked to the most representative celebrations of the Mayan people.

The main video-show begins. The great sound of the Mayan snail shell summons the young and the old to reiterate the respect and knowledge of their past, as well as their veneration and con-science towards living beings and the ocean. The marine fauna hears the calling, a calling of conscience, liberty, remembering that the Mayan world does not prophesy a dark ending, but rather the beginning of a new era.

The wind carries the visitors over Mexico’s coasts; first over the Mexican Caribbean, shown through the Mayan culture, with its richness of reefs, turquoise sea, and the white sand of its beaches. The mystery of Mexico’s culture follows visitors into the famous cenotes (underwater sinkholes) of the Southeast, where they drown in history, magic and ancestral traditions.

On the East side, the Gulf of Mexico houses grand sand dunes and tropical reserves for birds. Along the Pacific, visitors travel across golden beaches and cliffs, which have become icons of the country such as the Quebrada in Acapulco, where the coexistence and respect towards the power of the sea can be seen.

The next part of the journey takes visitors to the Sea of Cortés with the overwhelming arc in Baja California and great beaches that coexist with the desert, showing both the deepness of the sea and the vastness of the desert.

Throughout the video, images of the flora and fauna that inhabit the Mexican coastline are displayed, as well as the different activi-ties that tourists can take up in Mexico, such as golf, water skiing, sand boarding, diving, kayaking and spa, among many others. The voyage through Mexico’s biodiversity ends with images of children with open arms, which represent the movement of the sea and of the wings of birds, turtles and stingrays. n p

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theRe is soMething in the AiR

A Conversation with Mario Molina

Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (born March 19, 1943 in Mexico City) is the first Mexican-born citizen to ever receive a Nobel

Prize in Chemistry. Along with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland, he is one of the precursors to the discovery of the Antartic

ozone hole. In 1995 he was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in elucidating the threat of chlorofluorocarbon gases to

the Earth’s ozone layer. In interview with Negocios, Dr. Molina talks about how he became interested in science and his life today.

____by maría josé esteva

photos courtesy of centro mario molina

Johannes Kepler asked himself some 400 years ago: “Why are things the way they are and not otherwise?” No mat-ter what the era, it is that same, seemingly naive curios-ity that drives us to look for answers to the questions

that have fascinated mankind since time immemorial. Dr. Mario Molina, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, talks to us about his life and how he has contributed to science.

Mario Molina (Mexico City, 1943) was one of the scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for discovering the threat of certain polluting gases to the ozone layer. Almost 20 years have passed and Dr. Molina is still hard at work. In interview with Ne-gocios, he tells us about everything from his early encounters with science and why we need to take steps to protect the environment, to what he does during his free time and his passion for music.

—The first “conscious” contact most people have with science is the typical kid’s chemistry set and the home labs set up in their bathrooms. What was yours? As a kid, I started taking an interest in science –when I was about nine or ten– after reading books about pirates and the biographies of scientists. Then I got into chemistry experiments and microscopes. Years later, I started conducting more serious

experiments. I “appropriated” a bathroom at home that wasn’t being used and turned it into a lab where I conducted proper experiments, not games. An aunt, a sister of my father who was a chemist, helped me reproduce the experiments she did at univer-sity in my little “lab”.

—When did you realize that chemistry is all around us? What was that discovery like? Studying the sciences made me realize –and this was outside of school– how important they are to the general wellbeing of man-kind. I gradually specialized in one branch of science: chemistry. I realized that chemistry plays a role in absolutely everything, from industrial processes to the food we eat.

—Kids are always asking questions like “Why is the sky blue?” “Why do onions make us cry?” that can only be answered by science. Do you remember the kind of questions you used to ask?

From a very early age, I started asking questions like: What is chemistry and what makes life possible? How were the elements and the chemical compounds on our planet created? How were pharmaceuticals invented?


—Is there any teacher you have fond memories of ? Yes, my father’s sister. Rather than teach me, she made chemis-try a game for me. That’s how I learned. As for formal teachers, I remember Professor Giral. He was from Spain and taught me organic chemistry at university.

I also have fond memories of Professor Pimentel, who men-tored me when I was writing my PhD thesis at the University of Berkeley. He was widely recognized in his day for his teaching skills in chemistry and his scientific discoveries.

—Tell us about your passion for music. Do you still play the violin? I was drawn to music from a very young age. Classical music was probably my favorite. I played the violin as a boy and for a few years I was a resident at a school in Switzerland, where I was able to take private lessons.

Unfortunately, my parents asked for the advice of a friend who was a violinist and he told them that unless I spent eight hours a day practicing, it wasn’t worth it. I had to choose: music or science. Looking back, it was bad advice because I could have continued playing for my own pleasure, but I quit. Then I took up the classical guitar, because I thought it would be easier, but as it turned out, it wasn’t. Recently, I’ve considered taking violin les-sons again and trying to remember, but I haven’t had time to do anything serious about it. I still love classical music.

—How are music and chemistry related? It’s interesting that music has been the hobby of many scientists, including some very famous ones. For instance, Albert Einstein

played the violin. I have scientist friends who enjoy a special con-nection with music. I think we should all complement our lives with a little bit of culture and partake in it. A friend of mine who’s a scientist became so interested in instrument-making technol-ogy that he now designs guitars and violins using ultra-modern physics methods.

—Let’s talk about the Nobel Prize. What was the most satisfying aspect of winning such a prestigious award? I acknowledge that it’s the greatest achievement a scientist can aspire to, because it’s one of the most prestigious and longest-running awards in the world. The people who have received it have made major contributions to the development of science. People like Einstein, Planck and Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist who was among the first to express concern about climate change. Marie Curie is another illustrious example and, more recently, Watson and Crick, for their discoveries about the structure of DNA. The list of scientists who have received the prize is extreme-ly lengthy, which only comes to show how important it is to science and those of us who devote our lives to it.

—It’s been almost 40 years since you and Professor Rowland first revealed the threat polluting gases pose to the ozone layer. Were you aware of the implications of your research at the time? Yes, to a large extent we were. Part of our initial surprise was that we had uncovered a problem that was significant not just to chemistry, but to the wellbeing of mankind. This was because we knew the important role the ozone layer plays in controlling

the type of radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface, thereby enabling life to evolve. And we knew that the decomposition of the ozone layer would entail a major public health risk. The first step we took was to come up with ideas, a hypothesis, which was proven years later by experiments.

—Those of us who care about the environment tend to adopt certain practices, like separating our trash and using electricity, water and other natural resources more sparingly. Can our lifestyle help save the planet? There’s no question we need to make a more efficient use of resources like water and electricity and moderate our consump-tion. Unfortunately, acting on our own initiative as individuals isn’t enough to solve the problem. People who care about the environment should join forces with like-minded people and communicate their concerns to their governments, because only governments can enforce the regulations needed to bring about tangible change. We need to support environmental initiatives with policies that promote sustainable development.

—“Healthy body, healthy mind” is a popular saying. How do you cultivate your spirit?I couldn’t agree more that it’s important to achieve a balance between the various aspects of our makeup as individuals. Art, for example, is very important to human beings, as is exercise and work.

ABouT The mArio molinA cenTer

The Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies on Energy and the Environment is one of the most prestigious environmental research centers in Mexico. It was founded in 2004 by Dr. Mario Molina, Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995, to ensure the continuity of research carried out during his lifetime on problems concerning the environment and energy, and to create the consensus necessary to implement measures to solve them.

Its mission is to find practical solutions to the many challenges inherent in the development of sustainable energies.

Over and beyond its research activities, the center attempts to ensure its proposals are implemented by providing decision-makers with evidence based on the findings of its studies. This multidisciplinary approach aims to encompass the viewpoints of all actors, thereby facilitating consensus.

As can be imagined, the name Mario Molina carries enormous clout, an asset the center has used to the benefit of environmental causes, not just in Mexico but worldwide.

centromariomolina.org

As a boy, I loved reading and I later became interested in sci-ence fiction. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to read for pleasure lately; most of what I read is connected to work. Now and then I try to catch up with my reading, especially Spanish-American novels.

I love music too, and over the years I’ve taken a growing inter-est in art. I had the chance to live in Europe and used to love going to museums. There you can see some of the finest art collections representative of universal culture.

—With today’s hectic pace of life, we seem to have less and less time to ourselves. What do you do when you’re not working? When I’m not working, which isn’t often, I’m with my family. I listen to music, read, play tennis –I like sports– and catch up with current affairs in Mexico and abroad. I think you have to do things passionately. Work and free time should be something you enjoy if you want to reap the benefits. It’s important not to limit yourself to one activity, but to complement your life with cultural and sporting activities and family time.

—Returning to the subject of chemistry, it is said that nothing beats a perfect combination of flavors. What is your favorite food? Gourmet food is one of the things I enjoy the most. I appreciate good food from all manner of countries. It’s something I try to combine with my never-ending trips. Luckily, we have great food in Mexico. n

“People who care about the environment should join forces with like-minded people and communicate their concerns to their governments, because only governments can enforce the regulations needed to bring about tangible change.”


7:30 P.M. Arriving in the port of Veracruz at night, with the city reflected in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, is an unforgettable sight. Our trip begins with dinner at Il Veneziano, which offers an extensive menu of delicious Italian classics that have been known to delight even Italians here on vacation.

Il VenezianoJosé Martí 6Colonia Reforma T. +52 (229) 937 0584www.ilveneziano.com.mx

10:00 P.M.For a good night rest, check into the emblematic Hotel Emporio, which has an unbeatable seafront location. Luxury amenities, elegant interiors and high service standards complete the package.

Hotel EmporioPaseo del Malecón 244 T. +52 (229) 989 3300www.hotelesemporio.com/veracruz

8:00 A.M.The hotel-restaurant El Condimento prepares a great buffet breakfast to get you fired up and on your way.

9:00 A.M.Get off to a great start with a brisk walk along the seafront and a dose of revitalizing sea air. Then it’s off to Boca del Río, a municipality sometimes referred to as Little Venice since all its houses are on the river. A boat trip is the best way to explore the lagoon and the estuary, both brimming with local flora and fauna.

Boca del RíoKm 12 on the Veracruz-Córdoba Highway

1:00 P.M.Lunch time at last! Strange as it may sound, the best restaurant in the area is Asian, and goes by the name of Krua Thai. The Pad Thai and Curry Duck come highly recommended.

Krua ThaiBoulevard Miguel Alemánon the corner of BallenaFraccionamiento Los DelfinesT. +52 (222) 920 2034www.kruathai.com.mx

4:00 P.M.On the opposite side of the port of Veracruz is the island of San Juan de Ulúa, which served as a stepping stone for traders making the journey from Spain. Closely linked to the founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz by Hernán Cortés in 1519, its main attraction is its fort, which dates back to 1535 and is built mainly of coral stone.

Fort of San Juan de Ulúa T. +52 (229) 938 5151www.sanjuandeulua.com.mx

48 Hours in verAcruz

With a population close to 600,000, Veracruz is the largest city in the state of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave. This port city is a thriving eco-tourism destination, with magnificent coral reefs that draw divers from all over the world, while its folk music, colonial architecture, traditional

dress and colorful February carnival lend it a personality of its own. ____

by jimena sánchez-gámezphotos archive

Friday

Saturday


8:00 A.M.For a more traditional Veracruz-style breakfast, Las Anitas goes out of its way to showcase regional cuisine. Authentically Mexican, this small eatery has earned a well-deserved reputation among locals.

Las AnitasMiguel Alemán 1669 T. +52 (229) 937 0399

9:00 A.M.After enjoying a hearty meal, head to La Antigua, a small town 28 kilometers from the port (about 20 minutes by car) that stands on the estuary of the Huitzilapan or “Hummingbird” river through which Hernán Cortés reached Mexico City in 1519. La Antigua boasts many important historic buildings, like the house where the Spanish conquistador once lived.

2:00 P.M.You can’t visit Veracruz without trying its seafood. Back in the port, El Villa Mar offers good service and an excellent choice of regional dishes. We recommend the seafood Carpaccio, the fish steak with garlic and chili sauce, and the fish roe in green sauce.

Mariscos Villa MarAvenida Mocambo 527T. +52 (229) 922 2113

8:00 P.M. Now it’s time for one last stroll on the streets of Veracruz to take in the city’s stately colonial buildings. The Town Hall (Palacio Municipal) in the main square is as good a place as any to start. One of the city’s finest and best-preserved buildings, it is easily recognizable by its white facade and majestic archways that lead onto an inner courtyard.

Palacio MunicipalCalle Gutiérrez Zamora, S/N

8:00 P.M. Gran Café de la Parroquia is something of an institution in Veracruz, and the perfect place to get a taste of local culture. This restaurant-café can get pretty packed and noisy at certain times of the day, but is well worth a visit. We recommend the Platillo Volador (ham and cheese sandwich) and the famous café lechero (milked coffee).

Gran Café de la ParroquiaGómez Farías 34Colonia CentroT. +52 (229) 932 2584www.laparroquia.com

7:30 P.M.One of the most important buildings in Veracruz is the cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. Neo-Classical in style, its simple interior contrasts with the Baccarat crystal chandeliers and high altar that adorn the central nave, both gifts from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la AsunciónHistoric Center

Sunday

If you have some extra time on your hands, we recommend…

CempoalaA town 30 km north of the port of Ver-acruz where you can see structures from the Totonac culture decorated with riv-er stones.

ChachalacasTake a boat across the river to the beach or explore the dunes farther north. On weekends and vacations, the locals rent out ATVs.

TlacotalpanDeclared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this quaint little town lies 80 km south of the port of Veracruz. Aside from its colorful houses with tiled roofs and el-egant archways, a major tourist attrac-tion is the festival held every year on February 2, when the locals pay tribute to their patron saint, the Virgin of Can-delaria.


La Casa de Doña LupeWine is a living product and possibly one of the most complex and magnificent that has been developed by humanity. Each glass has a distinct flavor for it is the result of an ever-present factor of chance that requires a great deal of care. Everything needs patience: the grapes, the fermentation and aging processes. A proper environ-ment is crucial, given that the barrels are the ones that absorb it and stamp their mark on the beverage.

Doña Lupe is aware of all this, and has provided a warm family atmosphere at her small winery located in Valle de Guadalupe, in Baja California. With the help of her sons, Lupe is responsible for ensuring that the Cabernet and Nebbiolo grapes that grow on her land reach their maximum expression in the bottles that bear her label.

The winery is committed to organic production. It does not use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. In order to protect the crops, the company uses ecological pesticides made from natu-ral oils that do not affect the fruit’s taste, quality or hygiene.

To complete the experience, visitors to Doña Lupe’s warehouse may sample fresh bread, pizzas, desserts, oils and compotes that provide an organic pairing of the highest quality. www.donalupe.com

the Good land

They began as part of a dietary fad and became a vote for health. Now, organic products are a new business opportunity and a base for the well-known “green economy”. ____by mónica isabel pérezphotos archive

The world is changing. What was once a storage solution has now become a proc-ess that consumers all over the planet want to get rid of, little by little. Indus-trialized foods began to experience a general rejection and slowly gave way to organic products. This is not a trend or a whim; what contemporary consumers

are looking for when they choose organic product consumption is wellbeing at all levels, better quality, more nutrients and, at the same time, to contribute to the success of an eco-nomic model that is better suited to our times, and that reduces environmental risks while promoting social equality.

The green economy is an inclusive proposal in which small food growers can easily find their niche. It is, as stated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), “an alternative and a more sustainable proposal for doing business.”

Mexico has joined this trend, as proven in the examples that follow.

Ost GourmetBased on the philosophy “we want to show you what we’re made of ”, Ost Gourmet is a company from Querétaro that was created “to make quality food available to all Mexicans” through a small but consistent variety of pastas and salsas produced with the best raw materials found in the country.

Their production method is a combination of the artisanal and the industrial, which could be worth replicating in other fields. This “semi-industrialization” ensures that the foods produced comply with the same safety, hygiene and quality control stand-ards practiced by large corporations, without allowing the prod-uct’s properties or preparation method to be affected, resulting in a spirit that is 100% homemade.

Their products are mouthwatering: fettuccine with amaranth, ravioli with spinach and ricotta, and lasagnas, all imbued with intense flavor as the ingredients are subjected to the lowest pos-sible amount of processing. Their best properties come from two important allies: nature and time.

ost-gourmet.com


Tianguis Orgánico Chapingo (Chapingo Organic Market)

As with any business, anyone who wants to produce and distribute organic products needs to have a space in which to sell them and spread the word.

In Mexico, one of these spaces is the Chapingo Organic Market, a project that has been around for nearly a decade. It is sponsored by the University of Chapingo to both create a network of small producers and offer a space to promote their products.

The Chapingo Organic Market is open each Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Shoppers can find foods that are free of in-dustrial processing and daily use products that are prepared with environmentally-friendly methods. Also, there are work-shops and cultural events for consumers to increase their awareness of the economic and health benefits of revisiting the tradi-tional method of obtaining food.

Igualdad S/NColonia El CooperativoKm 38.5 of the Mexico-Texcoco HighwayEstado de México

Coffee MovementAccording to figures published by CNN Mexico, Chiapas is the world’s largest producer of organic coffee. In this Mexican state, approximately 70,000 producers –of which a third are women– produce 18 million tons of organic coffee each year.

This means that in Chiapas, organic coffee production is an economic movement. It is one of the best examples of how the green economy functions, because the people who live and pro-duce in the state’s coffee areas have discovered that unity really does produce strength. They have coalesced into an inclusive and cooperative community to market their coffee, which is free of agrochemicals and artificial fertilizers.

For all this, the demand for organic coffee grown in Chiapas is increasing at an average rate of 5% each year.

In the heart of the cloud forest that crowns the Sierra Ma-dre de Chiapas is Santa Rita, a small town full of coffee planta-tions founded by Turks and Germans in the early 20th century. Today, Santa Rita is part of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. Here, Rosalía Roblero and her family own three hectares that have been producing quality coffee for over 100 years.

In 1990, El Triunfo was declared a protected area, which means the coffee grown here is free of potentially polluting agrochemicals and artificial fertilizers. And because coffee plantations require shade, more native trees have been planted, helping counter deforestation in the mountains of Chiapas.

The organic coffee produced by the Roblero family is among the best in Mexico, but it is also exported by Agroindustrias Unidas de México, which supplies Starbucks and other coffee-house chains with small doses of success in a cup.

Vida OrgánicaTo meet the needs of those looking for an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, Vida Orgánica is just right. The company saw an opportu-nity to extend its business range to include not only organic foods, but a whole range of products designed to reduce the negative im-pact that consumers’ everyday activities have on the environment.Besides producing a wide range of products that bear the organic seal, Vida Orgánica distributes clothing made from organic ma-terials, electricity-saving light bulbs, rechargeable batteries and even personal grooming and beauty products that are carefully se-lected based on their ingredients and treatment methods.

In terms of food, they gather products from small growers of in-fusions, coffee, marmalades, cereals and supplies that have a high quality standard and that guarantee that their organic value, free of industrialized chemical processes, contributes to the quality of life of both consumers and producers.

vidaorganica.com


city on A thReAd

Walking the Tightrope with Betsabée Romero

La ciudad en un hilo (City on a Thread) opened at the Mycellium Ingenium Gallery on the 51st floor of the Torre Mayor in Mexico City on June 21, 2012. Featuring around 80 pieces, several of which were created expressly for the exhibition, this is the first solo showing by contemporary Mexican artist Betsabée Romero. In interview with

Negocios, she talks about her dreams, the meaning of her work, and the path taken by her career.

____by paola valencia

photos courtesy of ludens

Betsabée Romero is one of Mexico’s more internationally renowned contemporary artists. Born in Mexico City in 1963, her “urban” discourse and choice of materials like cars and tires is to be expected from someone raised

in one of the largest cities in the world. With over 90 exhibitions under her belt, Romero’s work belongs to over a dozen prestigious collections in Mexico and abroad. In the US, the cities of Los Ange-les, San Diego and New York have been very receptive to her work, which has also received critical acclaim in countries like Spain, France, Australia, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

The migratory movements of mankind and today’s breakneck pace of life are some of the themes explored in her work.

—Cars and tires are two words that inevitably crop up when talking about your work. What meaning do you attach to them and how would you define your work?Cars and tires are the tools of my trade. I view them as icons of modernity, as elements of an international language. As for my work, although my style is often described as “very Mexican”, I do not think contemporary art should be labeled in this way. I think

my work is an interpretation of urban living and its contradic-tions. I also like to broach topics like borders and migration. It is all related to the movements of mankind: Why do we emigrate? How do we get around? I think cultures can largely be defined by their migratory patterns.

Julián Zugazagoitia once said I was a very “glocal” artist and I guess it’s not a bad term to define me because I believe you have to work on both fronts: locally and globally.

—How did you come to adopt these materials?In 1997 I was invited to InSite Tijuana-San Diego, a biennial that does not exist anymore –which is a shame since, in my view, it was one of the most important biennials on the international scene. Being a part of it changed the mood of my work because I realized I had grown up in a very built up, central area of Mexico City, full of mechanics’ workshops and piles of tires. In Tijuana I saw a lot of scrap yards full of tires and I got to thinking about all those tires just sitting there when they were meant to be on the move. That is when it occurred to me I could use them as icons of modern living.


As for cars, they have always been associated with speed and accidents. In my case, I seek to convey just the opposite. Every time I paint a piece, I do it slowly, as if trying to give the tire a new history, a history of slowness. My tires have learned to be patient again. In terms of speed, it’s a plea to make decisions about poli-tics and culture slowly, with your feet on the ground.

Art is a vehicle for reflection and knowledge and my work has to do with the demystification of speed. I take my tires in the op-posite direction and set them in motion to imprint memories on them, recording everything that has been run over throughout history.

—How did you become involved in art?I’ve been in contact with art since I was very young. It was an im-portant path for me, but I think, to a certain degree, I traveled it out of disappointment. When I was young I wanted to study Phi-losophy, but in the end I opted for Communications Sciences. To be honest, I never saw myself working in the media; I preferred to focus on the research aspect, but I always felt very restricted. That’s when I got to thinking I wanted to create my own mes-

sages, so I went to study Fine Arts in Paris, then I studied Art His-tory at the Louvre and then I came back to Mexico and did a PhD in Art History at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). My communications background was instrumental in introducing me to the art world.

—Why City on a thread?The city is hanging on a thread and we all live on top of it, like tightrope walkers. What shores the city up is culture and history; memory is the point where the thread is strongest, allowing us to survive each passing day.

—The 51st floor of Torre Mayor is a business center, not a conventional gallery. What challenges does showing at the Mycellium Ingenium Gallery entail?It’s really interesting. Because they’ll be site-specific to each ex-hibition space, the pieces have to converse with their surround-ings in an unusual way. Ordinarily, when you show at a museum or gallery, the environment is very controlled so the work can be appreciated, although it’s often counterproductive for the spec-

“The city is hanging on a thread and we all live on top of it, like tightrope walkers.

What shores the city up is culture and history.”

“I believe you have to work on both fronts: locally

and globally.”

ABouT mycellium ingenium

Located on the 51st floor of Torre Mayor in Mexico City, the Mycellium Ingenium Gallery was created to provide common ground for artists, politicians and entrepreneurs. Its curator, Adriana María Martínez, is convinced there is nothing more at odds with reality than thinking people with supposedly antagonistic personalities can’t come together and share the same space.

Reforma 505, Piso 51Colonia CuauhtémocMexico Citywww.mycelliumart.com

tator. All that “Don’t Touch”, “Don’t Walk”, “Keep Your Distance”, “Don’t Cross the Line” messages create an atmosphere so formal and aseptic it can often be a turn off.

But here it’s completely different. It’s a place with existing décor –wallpaper, mirror carpet, furniture–, which makes it a challenge in the sense that all the pieces have to interact with their surroundings, and during the course of that dialogue each piece acquires new meaning.

It’s exciting to have two exhibitions showing at the same time in the same city, but in such different contexts. I’m showing at Mycellium Ingenium and I also have an exhibit, Al son del agave (To the Sound of the Agave), at the Tequila and Mezcal Museum (MUTEM) in Plaza Garibaldi; two very different, but equally interesting venues.

—What’s next for Bestabée Romero?I want to continue doing public art. The most I can wish for is to see my dreams take shape. I’ve already seen many of my paper sketches materialized on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, but I have many other ideas I’d like to see come to fruition.

Right now I have an interesting idea for a Ferris wheel depict-ing the different roles the vocho [the classic Volkswagen sedan] has played: as a taxi in Mexico City, as the first car a woman has ever owned, as a student’s car, etc. I’d like to build it down below, in front of Torre Mayor. I think it’s a very doable, fun, human piece that will help make contemporary art more accessible to people. n


When Acapulco Conquered the Worldthe acapulco chaiRMade of simple steel rod and PVC cord, the Acapulco Chair has departed from its port of origin and sailed the seven seas. But just what is it that makes this chair an icon of Mexican design and culture? ____by paulina lasaphotos archive

How often have we heard that “edu-cation is the key to real change”? Probably so often it has lost all meaning, yet there is a lot of

truth in that saying. Maybe we have not fully grasped its meaning?

Handmade in the Bay of Acapulco since the 1950’s, this simple, brightly colored chair has become an icon of international design. The identity of its designer is unknown, but today it is sold –and even made– in various parts of the world, and has participated in top design shows in cities like New York and Copenhagen.

Legend has it that the chair leapt to inter-national fame during Acapulco’s Golden Age in the 1960’s, when the bay was popular among Hollywood celebrities and attracted hordes of tourists in search of a taste of glamour. Its dis-tinctive shape and the materials it is made from haven’t changed since then: steel rod and PVC cord woven together much like a hammock.

Colors like deep pink (a.k.a. Mexican pink) give the chair a cheap-and-cheerful demean-or, but aside from being cost-effective to man-ufacture, it is suited to hot climates, is flexible and easy to repair –qualities any Bauhaus de-signer would applaud. Another advantage is that it can be made from recycled materials.

Numerous contemporary designers have incorporated the chair’s design principles into their own creations, like Mexico’s Cecilia León de la Barra and Héctor Esrawe, Patricia Urquiola of Spain and the Campana brothers of Brazil, who all have “Acapulco” inspired col-lections or individual pieces.

For instance, Cecilia León de la Barra designed a colorful magazine rack consisting of two concentric metal circles joined by colorful PVC cord, and a series of equally colorful outdoor stools based on the same principle as the Acapulco Chair.

Héctor Esrawe’s collection of outdoor chairs is as fresh and flexible as the Acapulco Chair, but takes more sophisticated shapes and provides support for the arms and legs. The chairs can also be assembled and dismantled, depending on the user’s needs.

Patricia Urquiola also has a chair collection that adopts the metal frame and plastic cord so characteristic of the Acapulco Chair, except that her versions have more complex, angular frames and feature broad, crisscrossing bands of color.

The Anemone, a chair designed by the Campana brothers, has a metal frame much like that of the Acapulco Chair, but instead of straight lines has a beautiful higgledy-piggledy plastic weave that creates the illusion of an anemone. Another piece of theirs that ap-pears to have Mexican ancestry is the Vermelha Chair, made of 500 meters of hand-woven cord.

On its extensive journeys, the Acapulco Chair has been reinter-preted time and time again, but will always remain true to its roots as a flagship of Mexican design. n

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1. Acapulco chair.2. Outdoor chairs by Héctor Esrawe.3. Vermhela chair by the Campana Brothers.4. Magazine rack by Cecilia León de la Barra.5. Chair by Patricia Urquiola.

72 Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle

Pujol is by far the best restaurant in Mexico City and, ac-cording to the prestigious San Pellegrino list, one of the top 50 in the world. Behind Pujol’s kitchen is Mexican chef Enrique Olvera (1976), who after graduating from the Cu-

linary Institute of America in New York, returned to Mexico to start his adventure as a restaurateur.

To celebrate Pujol’s 10th anniversary in 2010, Olvera published the book UNO (ONE), documenting 10 years of his culinary expe-riences, his philosophy and his views on the current state and the future of Mexican gastronomy. His second book, En la milpa (In the Field, 2011) delves into the chef’s new approach to the art of food-making.

Olvera experiments with traditional and contemporary tech-niques, aided by Mexico’s vast universe of ingredients.

Imagination, sense of humor and a peculiar attention to detail are the secret ingredients of Olvera’s success.

The list of his awards and achievements would not fit on this page: “Chef of the Decade” (Chilango) and “Best of the Best” (Travel & Leisure), are only a few of the chef’s accolades.

This season, Olvera stars on Diario de un Cocinero (Diary of a Cook) TV series in Canal Once –broadcast television network owned by the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). Directed by filmmaker Juan Carlos Rulfo, the series documents the life behind Pujol’s kitchen.

—What is your favorite place in Mexico to relax?Home.

—What is your favorite Mexican beach?Playa del Carmen.

—What is your favorite Mexican dish?I have lots, but I would have to say black mole and quesadillas.

—Which part of Mexico would you recommend every foreigner visit?Oaxaca.

—Do you have any traditional Mexican craftwork at home that you are really attached to?A huge clay pot.

Mexico According To

ENRIQUEOLVERAby naomi palovitsphoto courtesy of pujol

—Name one place in Mexico on your “must visit” list.The Tarahumara mountains.

—What do you like most about Mexico?Its people, food and geography: the landscapes, nature and weather. —What Mexican ingredients do you use most in your cooking?Avocado, corn, chili peppers and lime.

—Which is your favorite regional cuisine?It is hard to choose just one. Mexico has an amazing culinary diver-sity and each region has its own unique cuisine, from the North right down to the South, passing through Central Mexico, and from the Pacific Coast right across the Gulf of Mexico. But if I had to choose one, I guess it would be Oaxaca.

—What inspires you the most? My passion for what I do; enjoying my job every single day. n

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