To avoid problems with the companies installing wind farms in the country, "everything is negotiable," said Adrián Escofet, president of the Mexican Association of Wind Industry (AMDEE). He is convinced of the benefit the momentum that this energy industry represents for national development.
In an interview, he felt that by not covering the importance of its investment and development, the media do not adequately cover the wind industry. He said that attention cannot be focused only on the "alleged problems" of the Mareña Renewables company in San Dionisio del Mar, when there are seventeen wind farms in operation in Oaxaca and others in development.
Escofet said that ten years ago there were virtually no relevant wind farm projects. Today there are almost 1,500 megawatts in operation, which is perhaps 5 percent of the country's installed electricity capacity.
By 2016 between 5,000 and 6,000 megawatts of wind energy will be installed in Mexico, which will represent an investment of about 15 billion dollars [USD]. The goal is to reach 12,000 megawatts by 2020, especially in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and north and central Mexico, he indicated. This industry
"does not harm either the environment or the earth, it is a source of additional income for landowners and allows them to continue using it as they had been doing," he stated.
Regarding the charge by some organizations that wind companies hire bullies to impose their projects, he answered:
"That's a lie, let someone prove it. It is very easy to speak without proof ... the bullies, the wound that is gravely serious--a cop--the death there was, unfortunately, a couple of years ago. They aren't the companies. They are the people from Juchitán or the Isthmus area against people from the same area, or they are outsiders. In no case are they the companies. It is the population against the population, that's what is serious and dramatic."Thirty Projects
The son of a former director of the CFE [Federal Electricity Commission], Escofet, a civil engineer from the UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], is executive director of Zapotec Energy, the company that is developing a wind farm in Juchitán, Oaxaca, to generate seventy megawatts.
Here are excerpts from the interview with Escofet:
La Jornada: Why do you say "alleged problems" in Oaxaca? In Demex there are property owners who have been calling for cancellation of their contracts ... Two years ago a volanteo [person distributing company flyers] died when a paramilitary group arrived ...There are also problems with Natural Gas Fenosa (GNF) in Juchitán.
"Without trying to minimize the conflict that definitely exists today with a particular project, the issue has to be put into context because the problems must be understood in terms of all the successful projects. We are talking on the order of thirty projects.
"Apparently, the GNF project already reached an agreement with the owners (although to date, a sit-in protest has been maintained in Juchitán since February 25 demanding cancellation of that project). In fact, the landowners are not resisting the project; other groups have their own agendas."
La Jornada: Do you know how much is paid to the Spanish owner of (section of) a hectare [slightly more than two acres] of land?
"The same as we are paying in Mexico."La Jornada: A hundred and fifty pesos per hectare per year?
"Nobody pays 150 pesos [$12.39 USD] per hectare; that's a lie ... There is not a contract now in force in 2013 in the Isthmus (of Tehuantepec) that pays 150 pesos per hectare. In our case, we are paying 1,000 pesos [$82.58 USD] per hectare per year, and that's the going rate ... the market has been adjusted and is now at the level of what is paid worldwide."La Jornada: I have seen contracts of payments of 150 pesos per hectare.
"What year and what company?"La Jornada: Preneal ...
"[Preneal] is now Mareña. This case is different. We cannot focus the issue of the wind industry in Oaxaca, which is by far the most important investment the state has had in its history ... on a single sector ..."La Jornada: You discussed the issue of the Mareña protests in general terms. One is that the compensations are very low. ... the other issue is whether the project creates situations against fishing. What we definitely know is that the Mareña project has a SEMARNAT [Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources] authorization to build, and getting authorization from SEMARNAT is not easy to do.
There is something even further back, which is the question of prior consultation established by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization in cases of communal or ejido lands owned by indigenous peoples.
"SEMARNAT does consultations, it puts them at the disposition of everyone, it publishes it ... to see if anyone has something to say about it. On the other hand, all the companies have negotiated ... with the landowners, and they explain to them what the project is, what the goal is, etc., and that is a direct public consultation with the stakeholders."La Jornada: But not with the mechanisms established by Convention 169 because SEMARNAT uploads it to the Internet, and many indigenous peoples do not have Internet.
"What is the mechanism of Convention 169?"La Jornada: The consultation would have to be by means of their own mechanisms, their own authorities. Let's say [in indigenous communities decision-making is conducted in] the community assembly and convening the entire population that would be affected.
"This is done because from there come the signatures on the contracts with each one of them. Their server has been brought together several times with 140 landowners that we have in our industrial zone ... they are called in advance, everyone has a right to speak ... it is explained to them in the best way possible, and I know that with the vast majority of companies it has been done."It's Better In Mexico"
La Jornada: The contracts that I saw that were of Demex, Preneal-Mareña and Fenosa Union, say that there will be a spill of 1.4 to 1.5 percent quarterly of gross income through the sale of energy. I say to myself that in several parts of the world they are paying up to 10 percent, and that in countries like Denmark and Japan venture partners are up to 20 percent.
"In Mexico the issue is still better ... This has been changing and currently payments are fixed during the operation ... for terrain where there are no roads, for platforms, for warehouses, per square meter, and money is paid for each wind turbine. The fees are fixed ... now it is no longer percentage ... landowners are equal to those who were partners in 20 or 30 percent of the park but, unlike the partners, they always get paid, regardless of whether power is generated or not."
La Jornada: Another thing: on the sandbar of Santa Teresa, there are at least three sacred sites that the Huaves [indigenous group] do not want to be touched.
"Well, they [companies] might not touch them, but look, this is not contemplated in the environmental impact statement."
La Jornada: No, but it is considered in Convention 169, which is the law in Mexico.
"And the authorities didn't consider it when they signed the contracts? But, I insist, all this is negotiable. If there is a restricted zone for an issue of a religious tradition, of sacred places, etc., I do not think that there is any company, not one, of those that are in the wind sector, that does not recognize that it is untouchable."
La Jornada: Does anyone think that it's fair that the company retains all the value of the clean energy, that something should also touch the owners of the lands?
"In any economic activity, he who puts in more earns more ... If you rent a parcel for an auto repair shop and the rent is charged as X's pesos per day. At first, you have two cars to fix a day, but later you have forty cars a day. The owner is not going to raise the rent because he already agreed and negotiated in good faith. Well, it's the same here. We are going to agree on what the rent is for an appraised income and that's it."