Thanks to favorable institutional environment, Mexico is likely to become the largest distributed solar power market in Latin America.

Manan Parikh, solar-energy analyst at GTM Research, predicted that decision by Mexican regulator to raise the ceiling of the net metering of PV power stations to 500 KW will double the power-generation capacity of the nation's distributed PV power generators o over 300 MW this year.

Mexican Banks Association forecast that the nation's distributed energy technology, mainly PV power, will expand at 121% compound annual growth rate, with total capacity topping 8 GW and output value US$13 billion by 2050.

The Mexican government has been vigorously pushing distributed power generation, aiming to boost the share of renewable energy to 40% by 2035, including 18% of PV power, up from less than 1% now.

Parish remarked that the net-metering policy will facilitate the development of PV power, as it enables consumers with renewable-energy power generator to deduct its contribution to grid from its power bills.

GTM data show that the policy has simulated installation of residential PV-power generators with less than 20 kilowatts of capacity, which now account for 18% of the nation's total PV power capacity.

(First photo courtesy of pixabay)