Four-bln-dlr electricity warehouse planned for Mexico
Dubai-based company Rubenius plans to invest four billion dollars in a massive alternative energy storage site in northwest Mexico, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Wednesday.
"Without any doubt, it will be the biggest investment of its type in the world," Calderon said at a UN-backed climate conference in Cancun, on the Mexican Caribbean, that is seeking accords on reducing global warming.
The project aims to relay solar and wind energy to Mexico's electricity network and will be implemented over seven years, said the firm's chairman Claus Rubenius.
"No one can control when wind and solar energy is generated, but it's possible to store the energy generated so it can be used at a suitable moment, in a suitable place," Calderon said.
The warehouse -- which Calderon said will be able to respond to the needs of "a whole city" -- will lie in Baja California, a hub for high-tech companies near the US border.
It will use solar, wind and geothermic energy already produced in the region, and be connected to generators on both sides of the border, Rubenius said.
(c) 2010 AFP
