Institute of the Americas: Cross Border Energy Forum

Institute of the Americas: Cross Border Energy Forum

Date: January 13, 2015
Time: 3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Panel discussion; 5:00 p.m.– 6:00 p.m. Reception
Place: Malamud Room/Weaver Center – Institute of the Americas at UCSD
Cost: Free for Members, Students and Academics and $10 General Public
Contact: Diana Rodriguez
The presentation by Javier Orduño will be in Spanish, the panel discussion will be in English

We are delighted to host Javier Orduño, Director General of Baja California’s Energy Commission, Rob Oglesby, Executive Director of the California Energy Commission, and Rafael Alcalde-Navarro, Commercial Leader for Latin America and Western USA at GE Energy – Power and Water to discuss the vision for energy in Baja California, cross border energy cooperation and ongoing efforts vis-à-vis the potential to match renewable projects in Baja California with the California RPS market.

For several years, the United States and Mexico have touted enhanced cross-border energy collaboration. Indeed, the presidents committed to building “upon cooperation in the border region…to strengthen the reliability and flow of cross-border electricity grids and by facilitating the ability of neighboring border states to work together to strengthen energy trade.” Matching Baja California’s clean power surplus with the increasing demand for renewable electricity generation in California is an important issue for policy makers and industry alike. The potential binational energy market is just one example of the possibilities for and logic of increased cross-border cooperation in the distribution of clean energy resources. But, more needs to be done on both sides of the border to seize this opportunity.

There have been positive steps of late with two separate memorandums of understanding signed. The first, in July during Governor Jerry Brown’s visit to Mexico City, was an agreement between the state of California and Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (SENER) to encourage cross-border renewable energy investments and research and development. More recently, in October, the University of California system signed an agreement with SENER aimed at boosting research, visits from scholars, scientists and administrators, and development of graduate programs in the field of renewable energy over the next five years.

SPONSORS