Renewable Energy Project Opens In San Juanico Mexico

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Arizona Public Service Company (APS) today announced the opening of a new renewable power facility in rural San Juanico, Mexico. The facility is a hybrid renewable, battery and diesel power station that will improve rural electrification in an environmentally-preferable manner in the Baja California Sur region of Mexico. The facility will provide the environmental protection and rural energy development envisioned under the Joint Implementation provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“This project demonstrates how environmental protection, reliable electricity and economic development can work together for the good of the global climate. The plant will provide energy in a far less polluting fashion than would have been possible using traditional electricity-generating techniques, and will help curb the growth of air pollution, affecting the health of local citizens,” said Dan Dudek, an EDF senior economist.

The San Juanico facility uses highly efficient US wind turbines and solar panels, with back up power supplied by batteries and diesel generators, providing 24-hour power to citizens in this area of rural Mexico. Previous generating facilities produced power for only a few hours a day. “This project means a dramatic increase in the amount of power for the local area from a plant that will produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a traditional plant of the same capacity,” said Dirk Forrister, EDF’s energy program director. “The San Juanico plant is a powerful example of how developing nations can provide much-needed power for their citizenry while using greener technologies and fewer polluting fossil fuels, which contribute to local smog and global warming.”

The San Juanico project fulfills a commitment APS made under a 1994 agreement with EDF and Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, when the organizations agreed to work cooperatively to assist others in reducing their contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.