This article explores a strategy to empower vulnerable communities by transferring solar technology as a path to energy justice development. The proposed methodology is based on preliminary research on energy uses according to the needs, practices, and customs of the communities. The study focuses on the cases of three women with productive vocations based on entrepreneurship in different phases of incubation found in a peri-urban community in central Mexico. In this community, productive energy uses include a) the development of value-added products for retail and b) electrical implementation for machinery, lighting, and security. Therefore, a methodology was designed and implemented that combined social and technical interventions for empowerment. The social intervention included focus groups and semi-structured interviews. In contrast, the technical intervention evaluated the viability of solar technologies considering the available irradiation, energy consumption, and the cost of the monthly electricity rate. The results revealed each woman's prior knowledge about renewable energy, their concerns, and the importance of productive uses of energy. The methodology allowed women to develop a strategic business plan for their ventures, highlighting the benefits of solar energy. The document emphasizes the importance of adapting renewable technologies to the specific activities and needs of communities, as well as the analysis of productive uses of energy by region, including economic activities, home occupations, transportation, and rest time.

Photovoltaic thermal concentration has emerged as a method to enhance the energy efficiency and performance of photovoltaic installations. This approach addresses the growing demand for renewable energy aimed at reducing emissions and mitigating climate change. It represents a significant solution for applications requiring both thermal and electrical energy under constraints of a limited available area for solar energy harvesting. However, currently developed devices rely on expensive photovoltaic cells, incorporate complex geometries that are difficult to manufacture and maintain, and employ tracking systems that complicate interconnection with similar units. The objective of this study is to design and numerically evaluate a hybrid thermal–photovoltaic modular linear Fresnel solar concentrator (H-MLFRC) based on commercial silicon cells. The proposed system allows series and parallel interconnection and is suitable for both islanded and grid-connected configurations. Its development was guided by integrated optical, photovoltaic, and thermal analyses, which defined the system geometry, characteristic parameters, and operating conditions. The results indicate that the maximum operating temperature of the device is 70 °C under a nominal operating mass flow rate of 0.45 kg/s. Additionally, the thermal and photovoltaic efficiencies are 49% and 16%, respectively, resulting in a combined efficiency of 65%.

A prospective analysis of the Mexican power system has been carried out, and the possibilities for complying with the National Determined Contribution (NDC) commitments adopted in the Paris Agreement in the National Climate Change Strategy of the General Law for Climate Change are presented. A hybrid approach was used, inspired by Foresight Frameworks on one side, and using an accounting and scenario-based modeling platform called Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) with economic optimization on the other, to analyze four possible scenarios to 2050: Trend, also known as Business As Usual (BAU), which only looks at the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) and population, along with the country’s proven potential for renewable resources under the policy framework before 2015; Market, which considers the trend of installation of renewable technologies and the policies of the past administration; Sovereignty, which does the same as the previous scenario but for the policies of the current Mexican government; and Sustainable, which together with GDP and population growth takes into account the possible potential of national renewable resources and characteristics that the country should have to foster this. The research question was: Is there a long-term energy policy for the Mexican power sector to accomplish its NDCs? The study concluded that the best scenario is Sustainable, showing that the possible potential of the country’s renewable resources has the capacity to meet the Mexican commitments adopted in the Paris Agreement if, on one side, techno-economic renewable technologies and electricity storage systems are used, and on the other, if the country’s strategic areas evolve into a more holistically sustainable future.

Heliostats are critical components of solar tower technology and different strategies have been proposed to reduce their costs; among them diminishing their size to reduce wind loads or linking nearby heliostats mechanically, to reduce the overall number of actuators. This document aims to describe the development of a linked array of mini-heliostats which move together in an elevation–Fresnel configuration. This configuration consists of an array of mirrors rotating around linked parallel axes, in a linear Fresnel style with an added elevation mechanism allowing all axes to incline simultaneously in the plane North–South–Zenith; that is equivalent to an array of N linked mini-heliostats moved by only two drives instead of 2N. A detailed analytical study of the Sun-tracking performance of this kind of heliostat arrays was carried out, and an 8-mirror prototype based on optical and mechanical analyses was designed, built and tested. Even though the mirrors are flat, the array produced a rather compact radiative flux distribution on the receiver. The flux distribution is compatible with a slope error of the order of 1 mrad. Peak and mean concentration ratios reached 6.89 and 3.94, respectively.