The harnessing of renewable sources of marine energy has become a promising solution for a number of problems, namely satisfying the increasing demand for electricity, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the provision of energy to regions unconnected to a national grid. Tropical countries have an interesting dichotomy: Despite their varied potential sources of marine energy, their environmental and social conditions impose severe constraints on the development of a renewable energy industry. Moreover, the exploitation of these opportunities is limited by national economies’ reliance on fossil fuels, political and social restraints, and technological immaturity. The present work addresses challenges and opportunities common to wave energy implementation in tropical nations, as a first approach to a regional diagnosis. The motivation for this work is to encourage research on wave energy policies in the Tropics. Technical, environmental, and social challenges to be overcome in wave energy projects are discussed. The technical challenges are grouped into development, deployment, and operation stages of wave energy converters; environmental challenges are divided into biodiversity, cumulative effects, and monitoring aspects, whilst social issues include population growth and energy access matters. The Mexican strategy for developing sustainable technology throughout the wave energy production chain is also presented.

The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Mexico offer a variety of marine energy sources for exploitation. Although the Mexican government has made important efforts to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, national participation in clean energies is still limited in terms of electricity production. This paper presents a practical theoretical assessment of marine energy sources around Mexico, with the aim of identifying potential zones for subsequent, more detailed, technical evaluations and project implementations. The energy sources considered are ocean currents, waves, salinity, and thermal gradients. Using global databases, the percentages of energy availability for the defined thresholds were computed to establish the prospective regions with the most persistent power availability. This approach proved to offer more meaningful information than simple averaged values. Moreover, some environmental and socio-economic factors to be considered for future ocean energy resource assessments in Mexico were also discussed. The results show that the wave energy potential is highest in the northwest of Mexico (~2–10 kW/m for more than 50% of the time), and that there is a constant source of ocean current energy off Quintana Roo state (~32–215 W/m² for more than 50% of the time). The thermal gradient power is more persistent in the southwest and southeast of the country, where ~100–200 MW can be found 70% of the time. The salinity gradient energy is strongest in the southeast of Mexico. The practical approach presented here can be extended to perform preliminary resources assessments in regions where information is scarce.

Despite the proved potential to harness ocean energy off the Mexican coast, one of the main aspects that have restrained the development of this industry is the lack of information regarding the environmental and social impacts of the devices and plants. Under this premise, a review of literature that could help identifying the potential repercussions of energy plants on those fields was performed. The available studies carried out around the world show a clear tendency to use indicators to assess impacts specifically related to the source of energy to be converted. The information gathered was used to address the foreseeable impacts on a hypothetical case regarding the deployment of an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant off the Chiapas coast in Mexico. From the review it was found that for OTEC plants, the most important aspect to be considered is the discharge plume volume and its physicochemical composition, which can lead to the proliferation of harmful algal blooms. Regarding the case study, it is interesting to note that although the environmental impacts need to be mitigated and monitored, they can be somehow alleviated considering the potential social benefits of the energy industry.

The available wind and wave energy potential of the coasts of Mexico was found to be low in several analyses. However, these analyses considered only average conditions. To adequately assess the energy potential of Mexican coasts for energy extraction, it is necessary to characterize maritime weather and to define both normal and storm thresholds. For the present study, a 60-year historical analysis of wave and wind conditions along the Mexican coasts was performed. A statistical analysis of extreme conditions was carried out using the peaks-over-threshold approach. Also, seasonal (winter, spring, summer and autumn) and hourly available power were included in the analysis. The differences between the energy potentials when including and excluding extreme events are considerable. The energy potential of events occurring along the Mexican coasts confirms that energy can be adequately and profitably obtained from waves and wind. The greatest energy potential in the Atlantic is found to the northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula and in the Pacific along the Baja California Peninsula. Winter is the best season for energy extraction, while summer is the most unfavorable season.

Este libro presenta una revisión exhaustiva de los antecedentes que mencionan métodos para el estudio, aplicaciones y beneficios de la brisa marina, con ello se busca demostrar la importancia del estudio presentado en este documento. Así la metodología que se describe pretende poder ser replicada por cualquier interesado en realizar estudios similares. En el apartado de resultados se aplicó la metodología para algunas ciudades de México, en particular aquellas con velocidades de 0.5 y 1.5 m/s, esto debido a que estos rangos permiten obtener un confort térmico, dichas velocidades se presentan como recurso en todos los casos analizados (Morillón et al., 2018), también se identificaron los impactos en la disminución de la sensación térmica y en la mejora del confort del lugar con dicha ventilación. Finalmente se concluye, presentando los mapas de la República Mexicana y la georreferenciación de la mejora del confort resultado de la brisa marina y el viento. Se reitera la necesidad de cuantificar, el ahorro potencial de energía eléctrica que representa el aprovechamiento de la brisa marina-viento y la mitigación de CO2, relacionada con el uso de energía por ciudad y región del país y para cada tipo de edificio, como futuros trabajos, que a partir de los resultados de este trabajo es posible.