Mexico has seen a radical change of direction regarding renewable energy since Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took office in December 2018. By 2018, Mexico had held three clean energy auctions for the sale of clean energy and related clean energy certificates to CFE, the state-owned power company. An October 2018 press release from the Ministry of Energy noted that as a result of these auctions, Mexico would receive US$8.6 billion in investment, which would be used to develop 65 solar and wind energy projects. Under AMLO, Mexico has pursued a very different path. In January 2019, a planned fourth clean energy auction was suspended. The Ministry of Energy then gave notice in December 2019 that it would convene no further clean energy auctions. AMLO himself has publicly denigrated wind power and has shown an obsessive interest in hydrocarbons. Most recently, on April 29, 2020, the independent system operator for Mexico, CENACE, issued an "Acuerdo" that indefinitely suspended critical pre-operative tests for new renewable energy projects and gave CENACE broad discretion to disfavor renewables, purportedly to protect the reliability of Mexico’s national electric system in the face of COVID-19.
By most estimations, the Acuerdo is legally questionable. Mexico’s National Commission for Economic Competition (COFECE) has now issued an opinion holding that, in its present form, the Acuerdo may have anti-competitive effects in the electricity generation market.
Please read the May 2020 report The Economic and Strategic Arguments for Renewable Energy in Mexico from the Institute of the Americas and Wilson Centrer: Mexico Institute and let´s debate in English o en Español.