Solar panels on one of the world’s largest food markets will be used to power Mexico City’s electric buses, helping Mexico’s new president achieve her goal of boosting clean energy in the fossil-fuel dependent country.

The Central de Abasto is the most important food market in the Mexican capital, where many wholesalers buy. More than 30,000 tonnes of products are sold every day – 80% of consumption in the city’s metropolitan area. Located on former farmland to alleviate overcrowding in the city centre, it is so big that the best way to move between the halls is by car.

Claudia Sheinbaum was mayor of Mexico City in 2022 when she kicked off the Solar City project, which cost 600 million pesos (US $35.2 million). The 32,100 Chinese-made solar panels at the 327-hectare (35.2 million-square foot) food hub in 2022 are expected to produce 26.5 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power 10,000 homes for a year.

Now she is President, and those rooftop panels are already powering some parts of the market and saving it 3.5 million pesos (US $205,300) annually on electricity bills. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions annually by 11,400 tonnes – equivalent to reforestation and care of nearly 29,000 pine trees for 50 years, says Mexico City Mayor MartíBatres Guadarrama.

Starting in January, the energy will go towards Mexico City’s transit system, powering more than 300 buses and cutting the city’s carbon dioxide emissions by 13,000 tons a year.

Just 31% of Mexico’s energy comes from clean sources, unlike Brazil and Colombia, which get more than 80% and nearly 70% of their power from green producers, respectively.

During her presidential campaign, Sheinbaum pledged to strengthen state oil and electricity companies while also investing $13.6 billion in new power generation projects, including solar plants. 

The energy department will sell the electricity to the transport unit and proceeds will be used by the market to reduce its maintenance costs, says Jose Alberto Valdes, who was city sustainable energy director under Sheinbaum. He said the transport unit is expecting to save at least 18 million pesos a year.

This is just the start of the opportunity for long-term savings in Mexico City’s government buildings, Valdes says. A few government buildings have installed solar panels and reduced their utility bills. Scaling up the project will allow more government buildings to set up panels and sell power into the grid.

Sheinbaum, who has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, completed work for her doctoral thesis on energy use in Mexico at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California between 1991 and 1994.

Sources:

Roofs of Mexico City’s Massive Food Market Will Power Public Buses. Bloomberg, Oct. 3 2024

Mexico City’s new solar power plant is ‘largest of its kind in the world’ Mexico News Daily, Feb. 21 2024

Is Mexico City building the world’s largest solar park? Topos, Feb. 4 2023

Claudia Sheinbaum Spearheads Revolutionary Solar Initiative in Mexico City. Oil Price, Mar. 9 2024

Cover image: Daniel Lerman, Unsplash