Wind energy resource in Northern Mexico

Abstract

Abstract Mexico has installed less wind power compared to the other North American countries. Renewable energy sources only account for 3% of the energy mix in Mexico. The U.S. states bordering Mexico, namely Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, have good wind power resources. Among them, Texas has the highest installed wind power capacity of 10.34 GW. The wind resources in these bordering states indicate that the wind energy resource in Northern Mexico must be assessed; thus, the spatial and temporal information about the wind energy resource was studied. The daily pattern of the wind speed, one per state studied, was obtained. The wind speed was found to exhibit a pattern; it increases from 4 pm until 6 am the following day. The main conclusions are that the state of Tamaulipas has the highest Wind Power Density (WPD) of 1000 W/m2 during September and October, but the north of Nuevo Leon has, in a large part of its territory, an annual WPD greater than 103 W/m2; each state has 1700 useful hours of wind speed above 3 m/s. Northern Mexico has some zones with excellent wind speed as well; the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas have a wind speed of over 4.51 m/s across nearly their entire territories. Because Mexico in recent years has been starting to exploit renewable energy sources, the government has mandated energy reform, which improves the conditions for investment in wind energy in Mexico.