Dino Barajas Quoted by Greentech Media on Mexico’s Solar Market Reforms
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Akin Gump partner Dino Barajas, a member of the firm’s cross-border transactions practice, was quoted in the Greentech Media article “Mexico’s Solar Market in Limbo With Reforms ‘Changing the Rules Mid-Game.’”
According to the article, there is an array of complex energy reforms and electricity rate structures in Mexico that companies must navigate in order to find solar projects that can attract capital. Additionally, the country’s new target of 5 percent renewable energy by 2018 is considered low and credits allotted to track progress toward meeting the goal have very little value and are doing little to improve project pricing.
Barajas said the credits are “being given away like candy” to cogeneration plants and high-efficiency fossil fuel projects, which dampens the value of the certificates given to smaller solar developers. He added that Mexico’s energy reform “took away benefits there that worked and replaced them with something half thought-out. A lot of the enthusiasm in the market two to three years ago has disappeared because now they’re changing the rules mid-game.”