Mexico’s historic energy-sector reform effort to attract international oil and gas investment has had an unexpected consequence: homeowners in growing numbers are turning to solar technology. In the two years since the country opened its doors to private oil and gas companies and eliminated fuel subsidies to boost energy production and liberalize the marketplace, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices have climbed an average 51%. Sales of LPG, the most popular residential fuel for water-heating and cooking in Mexico, dropped 44% in the same period, says the Energy Ministry. The LPG-sales decline is due partly to people like Eutiquio Cervantes, 65, a retired doctor living in San Miguel Topilejo, one of eight rural villages in the greater Mexico City metropolitan district of Tlalpan... [Log in to read more]
