Background

Bono Solar (Solar Bonds) is an initiative of the Mexican Climate Initiative (ICM) in development over the past two years or so.  Bono Solar is a financing scheme to increase the presence of photovoltaic distributed generation in Mexican homes.  The scheme involves a startup fund for installation of PV in the first year, but finances the program in an ongoing way with net savings to electricity subsidies provided by the government through electricity tariffs (“Revolvencia y Fondo de Arranque”).

Given the potential represented by this innovative program, Berkeley Lab and ICM propose a joint project to perform critical analysis to bolster the opportunity of greater integration of energy efficiency in Bono Solar.

Activity

Implementation of high-efficiency equipment will come with an up-front cost, but lower overall energy bills over time.  The first task will consider costs and savings associated with each end use and consider combinations with PV subsidies, differentiated by climate zone (tariff class). The analysis will include lighting, refrigerators and minisplit air conditioners. Parameters to be considered as part of the analysis will include (1) geographical differences and presence of air conditioning, (2) household income, (3) new installations vs. retrofits, and (4) tariff categories.

Output

ICM has published a comprehensive analysis of costs and benefits associated with Bono Solar and launched a pilot that should be under implementation during the period of the energy efficiency analysis.  The main output of the project will be a briefing / annex to that main work and a revised integrated spreadsheet.

Background

With the help of LBNL in 1990s, Mexico developed two national standards through CONAE/CONUEE (Director Odon de Buen Rodríguez):

• NOM-008-ENER-2001 – “Eficiencia energética en edificaciones, envolvente de edificios no residenciales”
• NOM-020-ENER-2011 –  “Eficiencia energética en edificaciones, envolvente de edificios para uso habitacional.”

These national building codes are used as a reference in several local and state guidelines, but are not a mandatory requirement for construction in any Mexican locality. During the past mayoral administration of Mexico City, extensive attempts were made at implementation with the participation of CONUEE and international partners, but were not finalized

Activities

State of Play and Lessons Learned – This task will produce a brief document evaluating the history of building codes implementation efforts to date in Mexico City. 

Stakeholder Engagement Forum – Based on the outputs of the State of Play, Berkeley Lab and its partners will organize a workshop to bring together decisionmakers and implementers at the city with other Mexican institutions and international partners to discuss the priority and mechanics of building code implementation, as well as hurdles and strategies to overcome them.

Output

Workplan – The output of the Engagement Forum will be a work plan with identified leads and milestones towards implementation over the following 12 months.

Background

The Residential Sector Air Conditioning Usage Field Study builds on a foundation of Berkeley Lab’s expertise in end-use demand modeling and energy efficiency standards, as well as long-standing collaborations with Mexico’s Energy Efficiency Commission (CONUEE) and National Electricity and Clean Energy Lab (INEEL).

Activities

The Contractor will conduct measurements on a sample of about 20 households in Sonora, Hermosillo using distributed sensor networks for collection of high-resolution cooling usage data. The project will be timed in order to capture the majority of summer months (May-October) in 2019.

Output

This project will provide an as yet unavailable critical dataset in the development of effective energy efficiency programs and policies around air conditioning in Mexico.  The method and use of this data is likely to be relevant and applicable in many other geographical areas where air conditioner use is important.