CDM watch: San Rafael hydro, Querétaro gas-to-energy, registered projects

Mexico's 24MW San Rafael hydro project has applied for CDM status under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project involves the installation of three, 8MW turbines on the pre-existing San Rafael regulatory dam built by national power company CFE in 1994 to control water flow from the Aguamilpa hydro plant. The San Rafael plant, which is owned by Generadora Eléctrica San Rafael and Carbon Solutions de México, would receive credits from July 2014 through June 2022 and offset an average 71,257t/y CO2. The project is located in the El Nayar municipality of Nayarit state. *** The Querétaro landfill gas-to-energy project has also applied for CDM status. The first phase of the project consists of installing a gas system at the Querétaro municipal dump to capture, evaluate and flare methane gas. If deemed feasible, the second phase will see the installation of a gas engines for power generation. With 4MW capacity in the second phase, the project expects to offset an average of 72,264t/y of CO2 emissions in the 2012-19. Tecnología del Medio Ambiente de Querétaro, a JV between Spanish companies EBB Energy and Proactiva Medio Ambiente, is the project operator. *** And the UNFCCC has registered the following CDMs: landfill gas-to-energy projects Proactiva Tlalnepantla and Puebla; and landfill gas projects Ahome, Intermunicipal Matamoros-Torreón and García. Mexico now has 148 CDMs registered.