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Mexico has announced plans to build its first two thermosolar power plants, which will be located in Baja California Sur. The projects, each using mirrors and storage tanks to capture and keep the sun’s heat, promise something conventional solar panels cannot: electricity that continues to flow after sunset.
It is an ambitious move, with a price tag of roughly USD 800 million, and one that raises an immediate question. Why begin here, in one of Mexico’s smallest and most remote states? The answer lies in Baja California Sur’s unique predicament: an energy system disconnected from the national grid, costly to maintain, and long overdue for a reinvention.
Why Baja California Sur Struggles With Energy Isolation and High Costs
Baja California Sur is an energy island. Unlike the neighboring state of Baja California, which has connections to the U.S. grid, the southern half of the peninsula operates in complete isolation. There are no high-voltage lines linking it to the mainland, no ability to import power when demand surges, and no outlet for excess supply when the sun and wind are plentiful.
To keep the lights on, most of the energy has been generated using imported fuel oil and natural gas. Although natural gas is cleaner than fuel oil, both sources are relatively expensive and challenging to transport to the southern end of the peninsula. The consequences are clear: polluted air in La Paz, summer blackouts in Los Cabos, and some of the highest generation costs in the country.
Failed Fixes and Stopgap Measures: How South Baja Has Coped With Power Shortages
Over the years, authorities have tested different solutions. A decade ago, the federal utility considered laying a submarine cable under the Sea of Cortez to connect Baja California Sur to the mainland. Still, the plan was shelved as prohibitively expensive. In its place came stopgap measures: fleets of mobile diesel generators, dispatched each summer to meet soaring demand.
More recently, a handful of renewable projects suggested another way forward. A solar farm near La Paz, equipped with battery storage, and a wind park outside the city showed that clean energy could stabilize the grid and lower costs. Yet demand keeps climbing, fueled by tourism and population growth, especially in Los Cabos. These scattered initiatives, while promising, were never enough to reshape the system.
What Is Thermosolar Energy and Why It Matters for Baja California Sur
Thermosolar, also known as concentrated solar power, operates differently from the photovoltaic panels commonly found on rooftops. Fields of mirrors focus sunlight onto a central tower filled with a heat transfer fluid. The fluid stores heat at extremely high temperatures, which can then be used to generate steam and drive turbines hours after the sun has set.
In effect, the system turns sunlight into a dispatchable energy source: renewable power that can be delivered on demand, not just when the sun shines.
For Baja California Sur, this technology promises a breakthrough. The two planned plants would together add about 100 megawatts of capacity, enough to meet the needs of up to 200,000 households. Just as important, they could supply electricity during the evening peak, when residents and tourists alike turn on air conditioners and lights, and when solar panels are at their lowest output.
Costly and complex, these plants nevertheless represent the first serious attempt to replace fuel oil with clean, around-the-clock generation.
A Turning Point: Baja California Sur as a Test Case for Mexico’s Energy Transition
The announcement of thermosolar power signals more than a new set of projects. It suggests a break from decades of short-term fixes and an opportunity to provide the meridional part of the peninsula with the reliable, clean energy it has been lacking.
In many ways, Baja California Sur is a microcosm of the global energy transition. Around the world, grids are striving to strike a balance between reliability, affordability, and sustainability. If concentrated solar power succeeds here, it will demonstrate that Mexico can move beyond conventional photovoltaics and begin to master a technology used so far only in a handful of countries.
For residents, the promise is tangible: cooler homes in the summer, clearer skies over La Paz, and a future where energy scarcity no longer defines daily life.
Challenges Ahead: Timelines, Risks, and Uncertainty for Thermosolar Projects
For all the promise, much remains uncertain. The projects are still in early stages: sites have not been finalized, bidding has yet to be launched, and construction could stretch three to four years. That means the earliest operation would be around 2028 or 2029, assuming no delays.
In the meantime, Baja California Sur will continue to rely on its aging oil and natural gas-fired plants, as well as temporary diesel units. Hurricanes, rising costs, or fuel supply problems could complicate progress. Nevertheless, the new plants embody a bold bet on technology and timing.
From Scarcity to Possibility: Baja California Sur’s Path to Reliable Clean Energy
Baja California Sur’s energy story is one of vulnerability slowly transforming into potential. By choosing the southern end of this isolated peninsula for its first thermosolar plants, Mexico has placed its most fragile grid at the center of an ambitious experiment.
Success could mean more than cleaner air or steadier service: it would show that even the country’s hardest-to-reach communities can leap into a new era of energy. For households, for industry, and for Mexico’s credibility on climate goals, the stakes are high. Transformation, long deferred, may finally be within reach.