US-Mexico Electricity Trade Continues to Expand During NAFTA Negotiations

US border states are reportedly in talks with Mexico over electricity trade, despite President Donald Trump’s threat to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that underpins the trade between the two countries.

More power lines are expected to crisscross the border in California and Arizona, according to technical professional organization IEEE.

Considering its report, Imperial Irrigation District, an electricity firm that operates a grid in California’s Imperial Valley, has already wrapped up a deal with Mexico to study the exchange of up to 600 megawatts.

West Texas in the United States and Mexico’s San Fernando Valley both host vast wind farms, generating hundreds of megawatts of power. If both farms team up to trade electricity, they may help both countries to avoid the need for natural gas backups, reports IEEE quoting Duncan Wood, Director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Mexico’s wind and solar capacity grew 33% and 114%, respectively, last year, according to the country’s power grid and market operator, the Centro Nacional de Control de Énergía. The Latin American country is counting on its renewable energy generators to meet its future power demand.

Mexico’s Energy Secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell has recently indicated that dozens of foreign firms had shown interest in investing more than US$6 billion in Mexico for constructing 52 new green power generation plants.

Renewable energy is likely to account for 35% of Mexico’s power generation over the next five years. Analysts say US solar photovoltaics (PV) manufacturers may soon find their business booming as more solar parks spring up across America’s sun-soaked border with Mexico.