Belize and Mexico To Form Joint Energy Working Group to Boost Power Trade

Energy is another crucial area that was discussed earlier today in Calakmul, Mexico.  Love News understands that Mexico and Belize reaffirmed a commitment to existing energy agreements and explored avenues for expansion.  A key outcome of these talks is the pledge to form a joint working group comprised of technical experts from both countries, including representatives from Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) and Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE).  The discussions have included the possibility of increasing the power supply from Mexico to Belize and exploring a two-way energy trade, where Belize could potentially sell excess power from its own renewable energy projects to Mexico.  Prior to going into this evening’s meeting, PM Briceno spoke to Love News on the energy issue.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “That is a part of the agenda that we’re going to talk about energy and we want to ensure that Mexico will continue to support us or to be able to sell enough energy so that we do not have what happened last year. But also importantly Belize now is working towards having more sustainable forms of energy. We just put out a call for up to 80 megawatts of solar and then the government is working on another 40 megawatts of solar and then there are other companies that also want to come into Belize to produce energy. Our plan is to be able to be sustainable, to depend as much as possible on sustainable forms of energy but at the same time we want to be able to connect to the Central American Grid and that then we could produce enough to be able to sell to the Central American Grid or into Mexico.”

Belize, which relies on Mexico for a significant portion of its electricity, is actively working to diversify its energy mix and reduce its dependence on imports. The Belize government recently launched a Special Electricity Committee to develop a national energy master plan, with a focus on integrating more renewable sources like solar and hydro. The ongoing cooperation with Mexico is a crucial component of this plan, ensuring a stable power supply while Belize builds its domestic generation capacity.