Rooftop Solar on Mexico City Market to Power 300 Transit Buses

Thousands of solar panels on the roofs of Mexico City’s iconic Central de Abasto food market, one of the largest in the world, will be used to power the city’s transit buses, reports Valentine Hilaire in Bloomberg CityLab. 

The project was announced in 2022 by then-mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who was just inaugurated as Mexico’s first woman president. “During her presidential campaign, Sheinbaum pledged to strengthen state oil and electricity companies while also investing $13.6 billion in new power generation projects, including solar plants.”

According to Hilaire, “The first stage is complete and the rooftop panels are already powering selected parts of market, cutting its electricity bills. In the second phase, which is set [to] begin in January after additional work and testing, energy will be channeled toward the city’s transit system.”

The installation is expected to produce 26.5 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, which will eventually power 300 electric buses. Because a new entity was created to allow the market to trade energy with the transportation unit, the project offers a model for scaling the concept and letting more government buildings set up similar projects.