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CFE presented two flagship clean energy megaprojects designed to help Mexico achieve its binding target of 38% renewable generation by 2030. The first is “Proyecto Oasis” in the isolated Mulegé region of Baja California Sur, an integrated microgrid system combining solar photovoltaics, battery storage, and green hydrogen production to eliminate the peninsula’s structural reliance on carbon-intensive diesel imports. The second is the Rafael Galván Maldonado photovoltaic plant in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, which is undergoing a phased expansion backed by battery storage to reach a total capacity of 1,000 MW, making it the largest solar installation in the Americas and a central asset for CFE as the federal government pushes to expand state-led generation to 60% of the national market.
CFE Director General Emilia Calleja presented two flagship clean energy projects, characterizing CFE as an institution that already has a solid base of renewable generation and is deploying that capacity across the country while keeping its essential mandate in focus: guaranteeing electricity that is sufficient, accessible, and reliable for all Mexican families.
The two projects, Proyecto Oasis BCS in Baja California Sur, and the Rafael Galván Maldonado photovoltaic plant in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, represent the most ambitious clean energy announcements CFE has made in a single press event, and both carry a distinctive feature: they are designed not merely as generation projects but as integrated energy systems that combine solar power, battery storage, and, in the Mulegé case, green hydrogen production.
Proyecto Oasis: Solar, Batteries, and Green Hydrogen for an Isolated Grid
Proyecto Oasis BCS is CFE’s initiative to bring clean, self-sufficient energy to the Mulegé region of Baja California Sur. The project will be a photovoltaic plant, a battery storage system, and a green hydrogen system.
The energy produced by the system will be equivalent to the consumption of approximately 40,000 homes. The project also includes the production of water needed for the electrolysis process and will avoid the emission of more than 94,000tof carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to removing 31,463 vehicles from circulation. It will also reduce diesel and fuel oil consumption by 23,000 cubic meters annually and will supply 120 cubic meters of water to the population.
CFE explained that Mulegé has a particular condition: its electricity system is isolated from the National Electric System, meaning all the energy that homes consume has to be generated locally. That isolation, a characteristic shared by much of the Baja California Sur peninsula, is why the combined solar-hydrogen model is specifically suited to this location. In the absence of grid interconnection, a system that stores energy in batteries for short-term dispatch and produces green hydrogen for longer-term firm energy supply addresses the intermittency challenge that solar alone cannot resolve.
The green hydrogen component has additional strategic significance. Sheinbaum had previously included Proyecto Oasis in CFE’s formal presentation of emblematic generation projects, which also noted that planning is based on leveraging resources available in each region and on supporting industrial development. For a region historically supplied almost entirely by diesel and fuel oil generation, expensive, carbon-intensive, and logistically complex to deliver to a peninsula with no pipeline connection,the shift to a locally produced, zero-emission energy carrier is both an environmental and a supply chain achievement.
Puerto Peñasco: The Largest Solar Plant in the Americas
The second project presented by Calleja is the Central Fotovoltaica Rafael Galván Maldonado in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, which at the completion of its four phases will have a capacity of 1,000 MW, making it the largest photovoltaic plant in the Americas.
The scale of the Puerto Peñasco announcement is exceptional. At 1,000 MW, the Rafael Galván Maldonado plant would exceed the current largest single photovoltaic installations in the region by a significant margin. Sonora’s solar resource is among the highest in the world, the state’s desert terrain, low cloud cover, and high annual irradiance levels make it one of the most cost-effective locations on the continent for utility-scale photovoltaic generation.
A reporter from Sonora Power asked specifically about the energy bridge between Puerto Peñasco and Baja California. Sheinbaum explained that Mexico has a particular characteristic: because for many years generation, distribution, and transmission had been in private hands, the country became interconnected, but the Baja California peninsula remained isolated. The Puerto Peñasco plant, depending on how transmission develops, could eventually contribute to resolving that isolation in a complementary way to Proyecto Oasis’s standalone approach.
The Broader Generation Context
Both announcements were presented within the SENER framework of Mexico’s 2030 clean energy target. SENER confirmed that by 2030, 38% of the energy produced in Mexico will come from renewable and non-polluting sources, reaching 155 million MW from sources that do not produce greenhouse gas emissions.
The two projects join a pipeline of ambitious generation announcements CFE has made in rapid succession since May. The 499 MW Elvia Carrillo Puerto plant in Mérida entered commercial operation on May 12. The 745 MW González Ortega plant in Mexicali was formally inaugurated by Sheinbaum on June 21. The 357 MW Manzanillo III plant was inaugurated on June 13. The 37-project mixed development scheme award totaling 7,411 MW was announced on June 5. Proyecto Oasis and Rafael Galván Maldonado extend that momentum into the clean energy frontier, projects that are not operational yet but that frame the long-range ambition underlying the near-term commissioning cycle.
On the fracking question, Sheinbaum confirmed that the scientific panel evaluating unconventional gas development has expanded in membership, and that the first set of results will be presented at a future morning conference, signaling that the expert panel’s conclusions are imminent and that the administration will present them publicly rather than through a regulatory filing.
In response to questions about outages in Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Calleja confirmed that CFE has a total installed capacity of 70,000 MW against a CENACE demand analysis of 55,000 MW for this year, with new plants in Salamanca, Villa de Reyes, and El Sauz now contributing to the national system. She stated that the grid is being reinforced with intelligent systems to monitor and section areas in the event of failures, and that CFE, CENACE, and SENER hold daily meetings to review energy demand projections.

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