Dino Barajas Pens Articles for ACORE on US, Mexico Renewable Energy Markets

American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) has published “Municipalities Playing a Leading Role in U.S. Renewable Energy Development” and “Mexico: Latin America’s Renewable Energy Crown Jewel,” two articles authored by Akin Gump global project and finance partner Dino Barajas on renewable energy markets in U.S. and Latin America.

In the first, among the topics covered, Barajas discusses municipal utilities as they pertain to economic development in the United States:

• Municipal utilities’ benefits – “They are in the unique position of being able to use their energy‐offtake purchasing power to address the economic development needs of their constituents and communities. Unlike IOUs [investor-owned utilities], which primarily focus on profitability for their investors, municipal utilities can consider other components such as community economic development commitments among selection criteria for new renewable energy providers.”
• The critical element for municipal utilities – “[The key…is a] realistic economic development structure that provides flexibility to the renewable energy developer and its investors, such that the types of jobs created can evolve over time as the activities of the developer progress.”
• Municipal utilities and renewable energy’s future – “The future growth of the U.S. renewable energy sector will depend in part on the ability of industry participants to be creative in structuring innovative offtake arrangements. The municipal utility economic development model will helpfully be one of those alternatives.”

To read the full article, please click here.

In the second, Barajas discusses the benefits to developers investing in the Mexican energy industry, among other topics:

• The opportunity – “Because the long‐term relative stability of Mexico’s economy provides investors with safe, profitable power sector development opportunities, savvy political technocrats in the country are using the investment window to attract additional foreign investors and are taking advantage of downturns in other international renewable energy markets to thrust the Mexican renewable energy sector to the forefront of the global market.”
• Recent reforms to the Mexican electricity sector – “One drastic change enacted by the government is that renewable energy offtakers are no longer required to be shareholders of the project company developing the renewable energy project… The new market structure portends to allow greater flexibility in aggregating customers with varied energy demands and contracting strategies.”
• The future of Mexico’s market – “The Mexican energy market is poised to attract the majority of new renewable energy investment in the Americas if Mexican policymakers continue to view renewable energy as a critical part of the country’s overall power generation portfolio and enact policies to promote increased wind, solar, and geothermal development. Mexico’s natural renewable resources and its thriving economy have provided it with an opportunity to become a world leader in renewable energy development at a time when developers the world over are searching for investment opportunities.”

To read the full article, click here.