AID cooperative agreement no. LAG-5737-A-00-3018-00 to Winrock International for the `Mexico biomass cogeneration development program"

Winrock will research and analyze technical, financial, economic, and institutional issues, and disseminate results to agricultural and forestry industries, the national utility, government agencies, and financing institutions. Winrock will also provide financial and technical support for the most promising biomass projects at the pre-investment stage. During Phase I, Winrock will conduct surveys to identify: the magnitude of energy resources available in the form of residues in the sugarcane and sawmill industries; technologies that are available in Mexico or the U.S. to convert those resources into usable heat and electricity; the quantity of surplus electricity that could be made available for sale to the national grid; contractual mechanisms and incentive structures for the sale and purchase of biomass-generated electricity; the approximate costs and benefits to the target industry and the utility; the extent to which the biomass fuels could displace fossil fuels and the reductions in carbon dioxide emissions this would yield; the state of capital markets in Mexico with regard to potential investment in these technologies; the socioeconomic impacts of cogeneration; and the potential trade relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, especially in regard to the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement. Research results will be disseminated through reports and at least one workshop. During Phase II, Winrock will identify and support, on a shared-cost basis with the developers, three to five pre-investment studies for site-specific applications of technologies identified during Phase I.