Private: Mexico

Highlights in 2017
Highlights in 2017

 

New clean energy innovation policies and/or strategies

Mexico has organized three National Research Priorities Workshops: Materials Acceleration, Clean Cities and Energy Storage. The former resulted in the Materials Acceleration Platform Report, which was published in January 2018. The results of these workshops indicate the guiding lines for research and development for the energy sector.

Mexico has developed National Roadmaps for Clean Energies, associated with each of the five ongoing CEMIEs (Mexican Energy Innovation Centres). As of April 2018, we have published the following: Geothermal, Wind, Solar PV, Ocean, Solid Biofuels, Bioethanol and Biodiesel; and during the following weeks will also publish reports on Biojet, Biogas, Solar Thermal and Direct Use Geothermal. All of these documents are treated as Public Policies to drive each renewable energy’s research and development.

Top clean energy innovation successes in 2017

  • Mexico launched a call for proposals in cooperation with the University of California System, to support energy efficiency projects. After the evaluation process, five projects were selected and will receive 122 million pesos (MXP). These projects are set to begin during 2018.
  • Mexico launched a call for proposals in Cooperation with the UK Newton Fund to build research teams that focus on energy policy development, on themes such as Energy Storage, Energy Efficiency and Epidemiology, Materials for Clean Energies and Offshore clean energy technologies. Six projects were selected and will be receiving 6.3 million MXP during 2018.
  • Mexico also published two calls for proposals that relate directly to two Mission Innovation Challenges: Smart grids and CCUS. With 450 and 988 million MXP, respectively, México expects to have two projects running in 2019.

Top activities delivered in support of the Innovation Challenges in 2017

  • Co-organized and hosted the first international BRN Workshop, working closely with our co-lead the US DOE and other MI partners, especially from Canada, Italy, and EC. Together with our co-leads from US DOE, MI partners, and experts who participated in the Mexico Workshop, we published thefirst international BRN Workshop Report.  Engaged with our MI partners and brought on board Canada / NRCAN as the third co-lead of this initiative.
  • Together with our co-leads from US DOE, MI partners, and experts who participated in the Mexico Workshop, we submitted a paper for publication in the renowned Journal Nature Materials. Title: Accelerating Discovery of New Materials for Clean Energy in the Era of Smart Automation[1]
  • Mexico has supported the Mission Innovation Secretariat with two former Masters’ Students, who were supported with scholarships from the Energy Sustainability Fund. Even though the Scholarships Program is not reported as a Mission Innovation Investment Commitment, we are developing talent that will be able to drive the national effort in the Clean Energy Transition.
  • Mexico is actively participating in the Biofuels Innovation Challenge, having frequent meetings and calls with Canada and the US. Also, a Mexican technical delegation attended a Biofuels Workshop in India last February.

Collaborations

Materials Acceleration Platform
Countries: Canada, United States
Type of collaboration: public-public
Start date: 2017
Report describing priorities and opportunities for MI countries engaged in R&D in Innovation Challenge 6.

North American Biojet Research Priorities Workshop
Countries: Canada, United States
Type of collaboration: public-public
Start date: 2018
Workshop to identify priorities for research and deployment of biojet within North America.

 

[1]Authors: Daniel Tabor, Loïc Roch, Semion Saikin, Christoph Kreisbeck, Dennis Sheberla, Joseph Montoya, Shyam Dwaraknath, Muratahan Aykol, Carlos Ortiz, Hermann Tribukait, Carlos Amador-Bedolla, Christoph Brabec, Benji Maruyama, Kristin Persson, and Alán Aspuru-Guzikv