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High power bills force towns in Yucatan to give solar energy a try

Mayor from across Yucatan examine new solar panels at the Olimpo Cultural Center in Merida. Photo: Sipse

Faced with huge electric bills, municipalities across Yucatan are going solar. The savings have been immediate.

In Sucilá, near Tizimin, the city hall now has 282 solar panels, which saves 70 thousand pesos per month, said Mayor Diego Lugo Interián reported.

The mayor explained both economic and environmental benefits were behind the decision to install the solar-energy system.

Sucilá will use solar panels to run drinking-water pumps.

With the new photovoltaic equipment, the municipality has become a role model for others, so Lugo Interián is promoting clean energy among other mayors, even if it means crossing party lines, he said.

Santa Elena invested close to 500,000 pesos in solar panels, an investment that will take between three and four years to recoup, said Mayor Luis Alberto Sansores Mián.

So far, he said, it is one of the most productive investments that the city council has made. That town also uses solar panels to run its water pumps.

“It is important that more municipalities adopt the placement of these systems that reduce energy costs. The main beneficiary is not us as mayors, but the community, to which greater benefits can be implemented with the savings, but the environment will also be grateful,” he said.

Temozón, in the west of the state, now has solar-powered street lamps on one of its main avenues.

Yucatan’s capital and largest city, Merida, was not to be left out the game.

Officials installed 258 solar panels, costing 3 million pesos, were installed atop the Olimpo Cultural Center, next to the Municipal Palace. The city’s wastewater treatment plant is also run by solar energy.

Solar panels can last between 25 and 30 years.

Source: Sipse

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