Mexican Center for Innovation in Geothermal Energy (CeMIE – Geo)
The Mexican Center for Innovation in Geothermal Energy, CeMIE-Geo, is an academia-industry alliance supported by the Mexican Secretary of Energy (SENER) and the National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT) aimed to promote and accelerate the use and development of geothermal energy in Mexico.
CeMIE-Geo started the 23th of January 2014 when the first meeting of the consortium was held in CONACyT headquarters. This meeting was promoted by Director of CICESE, an institution funded by CONACYT. In this meeting the consortium’s structure was ratified comprising 21 institutions, 12 of them in the academic sector and 9 private and public companies. The participant institutions in CeMIE-Geo are:
- Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
- Centro de Geociencias de la UNAM (CGEO)
- Instituto de Energías Renovables de la UNAM
- Instituto de Geología de la UNAM
- Instituto de Geofísica de la UNAM
- Instituto de Ingeniería de la UNAM
- Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas (IIE)
- Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH)
- Universidad Politécnica de Baja California (UPBC)
- Centro de Ingeniería y Desarrollo Industrial (CIDESI)
- Centro de Tecnología Avanzada, A.C. (CIATEQ)
- Centro de Sismología y Volcanología de Occidente de la Universidad de Guadalajara (SisVoc)
- Clúster de Energías Geotérmica y Renovables, A.C. (ClústerGEO)
- Geocónsul, S.A. de C.V.
- Geocónsul, S.A. de C.V.
- Exploración, Perforación y Estudios del Subsuelo, S.A. de C.V. (EPYESA)
- Geología, Minería y Consultoría, S.A. de C.V.
- Especialistas en Turbopartes, S.A. de C.V.
- Prados Camelinas, S.A. de C.V.
- GS Energía, S.A. de C.V.
- Generadores de Negocios en Energía Renovable y Ambientales, S.C.
In the same meeting it was officially informed that The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will participate in the consortium as the 22nd institution through its branch called ‘Gerencia de Proyectos Geotermoeléctricos (GPG)’.
The consortium’s organizational structure will be headed by an Administrative Council, along with three Committees that will give their advice to a Directive Group, to a Technical Officer, and to an Administrative Officer. These two Officers will be in charge of 4 Coordinators, one of them depends on the Administrative Officer and 3 of them depend on the Technical Officer.
Ten directors and ten deputy directors comprise the Administrative Council as follows:
| Institution | Director | Deputy director |
|---|---|---|
| CICESE (Presidente) | Federico Graef Ziehl | Edgardo Cañón Tapia |
| IIE | José Luis Fernández Zayas | José David Nieva Gómez |
| UNAM | Luis Agustín Álvarez Icaza Longoria | Édgar Santoyo Gutiérrez |
| UNAM | Gerardo Carrasco Núñez | Francisco Valdés Galicia |
| UMSNH | Salvador Jara Guerrero | José Gerardo Tinoco |
| UMSNH | Víctor Hugo Garduño Monroy | Luis M. Villaseñor |
| ClústerGEO, AC | Miguel Maza y Ferrer | Alonso Gómez Sanz |
| Geocónsul, SA de CV | Luis C.A. Gutiérrez Negrín | Alfredo Mañón Mercado |
| BajaInnova, SA de CV | Guillermo Cruz | Eduardo Valtierra |
| CFE | Magaly Flores Armenta | Miguel A. Ramírez Montes |
The Technical Officer is José Manuel Romo Jones and the Administrative Officer is Leonor Falcón Omaña, both from CICESE. The members of the International Advisory Group are John W. Lund, Halldor Armannsson, Marcelo J. Lippmann, Paul Brophy, L.J. Patrick Brown y Noriyoshi Tsuchiya. The Technical and Administrative Officers are developing an agreement for the consortium’s legal Constitution, and agreements for the resources allocation as well.
The provided seed grant for CeMIE-Geo is 1,183 million Mexican pesos (approximately 87.6 million dollars), 958.6 million Mexican pesos are given by SENER-CONACYT, and 224.5 million Mexican pesos are coming from private and public sector companies. These resources will cover operation during the first four years, starting in 2014.
The main goal is to use the existing physical and human infrastructure in the country, strengthen it, and promote its functioning in a coordinated manner, in such a way that efforts be focused to promote scientific research, technological development and innovation in the field of geothermal energy.