Edna Guadalupe Soto Ruiz

The global energy transition and current efforts to decarbonise societies has stimulated the use of renewable energy worldwide. Consequently, governments globally have been updating and creating policies, norms and regulations to support this energy transition. In Mexico, energy targets aim for50% of total energy generation to come from clean sources by 2050. However, as opposed to other countries, in Mexico the introduction of regulation has been slowrelative to the rapid growth of the wind energy sector. This has led to repercussions for the economy, the environment and society.

This dissertation examines the role and importanceof regulation for strengthening the wind energy sector in Mexico and the ways in which this can be achieved. It discusses how a robust regulatory framework and its continuous improvement can benefit all key stakeholders within the development of the sector. Furthermore, it identifies possible solutions to tackle social, economic and environmental issues.

The proposed solutions are grounded in the analysis of60issues pertaining to wind developments in Mexico that were identified from literature. Using document analysis, these issues were mapped against existing laws to determine which specifically are not addressed by Mexican law. The next step was the identification of suitable instruments (policies, norms and regulations) implemented in other countries to address such issues. All this work is supported by 22 interviews with key informants that confirm issues and proposed solutions. 

Key findings show that the majority (35) of the issues identified can be addressed by existing regulation, while the other 25 issues do not have regulation to address them directly. Of the latter, 11 are due to technical matters in the planning stage and can be solved by using existing mechanisms in current law. The last 14 issues are not part of the scope of this study and require further research on how to address them.