SAN MIGEL TOPILEJO, Mexico, Sep 26 (IPS) – Verónica Molina, an indigenous Comcaac woman, was first introduced to solar energy in 2016, when she traveled to India for training in community photovoltaic facilities. This later allowed her to participate in the installation of the first solar systems and family vegetable gardens in her community, Desemboque del Seri, in northern Mexico.
Later she was invited to the project Energy, water and food security for indigenous peoples in semi-arid coastal areas of northern Mexicosponsored by the National Council for Humanities, Science and Technology (Conahcyt), which started in 2022.
“We plant vegetables because there are no other seeds to use. They are for personal consumption. With the panels we pay less for energy, and with the gardens we save money on vegetables,” the solar activist told IPS from Desemboque del Seri, about 1,900 kilometers from Mexico City.
In addition to producing their own electricity, participating families harvest a variety of vegetables in Desemboque and neighboring Punta Chueca, Comcaac areas inhabited by some 1,200 people on the coast of Sonora state, and one of 69 indigenous peoples of Mexico, who also fish.
While the panels cover between 25% and 75% of a household’s consumption, each of the more than 40 family gardens provides between 100 and 200 kilograms of vegetables for each of the two annual harvest seasons.
The region suffers from marginalization, poverty and disease. In contrast, it receives daily solar radiation of 5.9 kWh/m2 and annual precipitation of 200 milliliters, which makes seasonal farming difficult.
The initiative consists of a hybrid system combining photovoltaic generation and food production, located under the panels to utilize the sun, shade and dew they collect at night, which is in vogue in countries such as Germany, Brazil and the United States States.
This eco-technology is still in its infancy in Mexico and it is unknown how many systems are in use in the country. The Mexican agrovoltaic network prepares a census to determine their status.
In fact, the Strategic Plan on Climate Change for the Agri-Food Sector includes the use of solar panels for electricity generation.
Softening
“We realized they had problems in health, economy, food and land. We looked for comprehensive solutions, in line with the budget. They have the sea or the desert, it is an extremely dry place,” says Rodolfo Peón from Hermosillo. capital of Sonora.
“We saw that agriculture was an alternative to improve their diet and provide electricity,” added the researcher from the Industrial Engineering Department of the Public University of Sonora, referring to the project in the Comcáac area.
This is how the agrovoltaic system, the only low-cost solution for the area, appeared on the scene.
The project is funded by Conahcyt’s National Strategic Programs with approximately $450,000 and focuses on the components of energy, water, food, health, biodiversity and territorial defense.
Since 2018, the government has sought, with little success, internal capacity (sovereignty) in food production for Mexico’s population of some 130 million people.
Mexico currently ranks eleventh in the world when it comes to food production. During the first seven months of this year, the country exported more agricultural products than in the same period last year, although it also bought more, albeit in a surplus agricultural balance.
The country is highly vulnerable to the consequences of the climate crisis, such as drought, rising temperatures and the spread of pests.
As a result, producers of corn, beans, wheat, coffee and other traditional products are already suffering from phenomena such as this year’s acute water shortages, and will continue to suffer further negative impacts in the long term, impacting quality of life . , income and the rural environment.
Latin America’s second largest economy has about six million rural manufacturing units, of which 75% are less than five hectares in size and only 6% are more than 20 hectares in size, supporting about 20 million people.
Furthermore, 79% of electricity generation depends on fossil fuels, followed by wind energy (7%), photovoltaics (4.5%), hydropower (4.4%) and nuclear energy (3.7%). According to the Transitional Electricity Actthe country should generate 35% of its electricity from alternative sources by 2024, but this is a distant target.
The government of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which began in December 2018 and will end on October 1, put the brakes on the energy transition to strengthen the State Electricity Commission, which burns gas to generate electricity, and Petróleos Mexicanos, which favors fossil fuels.
The country has agrovoltaic potential, with 20 million hectares of land under cultivation and more than 10,000 megawatts of photovoltaic energy, 70% of which is in extensive facilities.
Hybrid experiments
At a height of four meters, six modules of photovoltaic panels capture solar energy which, after passing through an inverter, is converted into electricity. Sheltered by them, 24 beds house pumpkin, lettuce and tomato crops, which benefit from protective shade, and rainwater and night dew collected by the panels.
This takes place in the sustainable and educational agrovoltaic plot (Pase), located in a corner of the Center for Practical Education and Research in Animal Production and Health of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences of the public National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The center is located in San Miguel Topilejo, a town in the municipality of Tlalpan, in the south of Mexico City.
At the facility visited by IPS, on the other side of a dirt road, cattle graze while the photovoltaic system waits for the cloudy sky to open and bathe them in the nourishing rays of the sun.
On one side of the plot there are six more open-air beds to compare the results with the beds protected by the panels.
During an earlier tour of the facility, Aarón Sánchez, an academic at Unam’s Institute of Renewable Energies and coordinator of the plot, explained that they are studying how crops develop under a photovoltaic roof that generates electricity.
He explained that they analyze their performance when an evaporation process takes place in the lower part of the crops themselves, and the modules operate at a lower temperature and higher efficiency.
Inaugurated in 2023, the Pase aims to increase the quality and quantity of agricultural products, generate green energy, reduce water consumption and socialize new technologies among farmers.
The plot, which features a rainwater harvesting system with a 145 cubic meter tank to feed the drip irrigation system and temperature and humidity sensors, also involves the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of Mexico City.
An international consortium of institutions from the United States, France, Israel, Kenya, Morocco and Mexico is also participating.
Back in Sonora, Molina and Peón called for more support to expand the systems.
“We can ask for more support because some families in the community have not had access to the agrovoltaic garden. Hopefully the project can continue,” said the community photovoltaic expert.
Peón believes the results are promising, but much remains to be done.
“We hope there will be a federal program to support indigenous peoples. There needs to be a change in the rules of the game (so people can generate their own energy in greater quantities),” he said.
“There must be synergy between the energy and agriculture sectors so that we can see large-scale projects,” he added.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
