Mexico Partnership

The Energy Efficiency for Development initiative, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, helps Mexico and other partner countries achieve more resilient and sustainable economic development. Using the Energy Efficiency for Development (EE4D) platform, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory performed an analysis on residential air conditioning use for Sonora, Mexico. Summer temperatures in Sonora often reach triple digits, and this analysis helped to develop effective policy for energy efficiency adoption in Mexico.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory also significantly expanded the deployment of its building efficiency benchmarking tool (BETTER) to support building decarbonization plans in the public and private sectors and create a database with energy consumption data of buildings located in different climate zones in Mexico. The positioning of the BETTER tool as a resource to advance net zero strategies was reinforced with the launching of the BETTER | Mexico toolkit, which adds a building energy database specific to Mexico and customized building electricity and fossil energy consumption statistics to deliver accurate and precise benchmarking and net zero retrofit analysis of buildings in different regions of the country. 

Mexico's transport sector is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses in the country and is a sector where technical assistance for electrification of urban and freight transport, especially to subnational governments, can significantly help Mexico reduce carbon emissions and achieve its climate goals.

NREL is working with the states of Guanajuato and Yucatán on planning and implementing sustainable transport policies and programs in a manner that provides opportunities for replication by other governments in Mexico. In Guanajuato, USAID and NREL helped develop a Roadmap for Decarbonization of the Transport Sector. The state of Yucatán is working with NREL on energy analysis in relation to their electric IE-TRAM mass transit program, which includes building more than a 100km electric bus corridor in the state capital Mérida.

Previously, NREL also worked with officials in Mexico City on a technical analysis of the potential benefits of electric motorcycles and buses in the city. It was deemed that policy development was needed to encourage electric motorcycle and bus usage, and electric motorcycles and buses used for commercial use would not only be a viable opportunity to increase access to transportation, but a way to reduce emissions as well.

Technical Evaluation of Battery Electric Bus Potential in Mexico City and Leon, Mexico, Fact Sheet (2020)

The Value of Motorcycle Electrification in Mexico City, Fact Sheet (2020)

NREL used the System Advisor Model (SAM) to explore the economics of distributed solar photovoltaics in Mexico. The analysis, conducted with the Energy Regulatory Commission of Mexico, modeled how three proposed changes to solar distributed generation metering and billing would impact ratepayers. Mexico's Secretariat of Energy led the second analysis in close collaboration with NREL. This analysis compared the benefits of residential solar distributed generation and energy efficiency for individual customers, the Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, and the environment.

Informing Mexico's Distributed Generation Policy With System Advisor Model Analysis, NREL Technical Report (2018)

Informando la Política de Generación Distribuida de México con Análisis del Modelo para Asesoría de Sistemas, NREL Technical Report (2018)

Using Mathematical Models To Enable Transportation Decarbonization and Combat Climate Change