Mexico has announced energy goals for 2026 that would see a combination of nuclear and wind power make up 23% of electricity. At the same time it wants to connect the entire population to the grid, decrease transmission losses and develop abundant shale gas reserves.
The most pessimistic scenario for nuclear sees it meeting 2.5% of demand, which at about 11,991 GWh represents virtually no growth on the country's only nuclear power plant, Laguna Verde, which hosts two boiling water reactors producing about 800 MW each and licensed to operate until 2029 and 2034.
The middle scenario puts nuclear at 6.6%. This would be a tripling from current production to 31,656 GWh and would require a little over 4 GW of nuclear capacity in total, assuming a capacity factor of 90%.
The last scenario has 18.1% of power coming from nuclear plants - some 86,816 GWh and about equivalent to the output from 11 GW of nuclear generating capacity.
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