Mexico's national electricity agency recently commissioned construction of the $19.2-million, five megawatt Cerro Prieto photovoltaic plant in Baja California, to begin in early December. Located near Mexicali along the U.S.-Mexico border, the plant's four different solar technology lines are expected to help its owner, the Comisión Federal de Eletricidade, determine what type of utility-scale solar plants should follow in the region. CFE expressed interest in testing concentrated solar, crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon production technologies at Cerro Prieto.
The Baja location receives an estimated 6.4 kilowatt hours per square meter—favorable for solar insolation—and Mexico receives 5 kWh/sq m nationally, making it the country with the third-greatest solar potential globally. A study of the location isolation was included in a report commissioned from the U.S. Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1999 by CFE. The Cerro Prieto plant may also prove to be a source of exported energy to California through one of several cross-border electrical transmission lines.