Major infrastructure projects for Puerto Peñasco, the best tourist destination in northwestern Mexico

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Foto: SECTUR

Puerto Peñasco —also known as ‘Rocky Point‘— is ready to step into the next level as the most important tourist destination in Sonora and northwestern Mexico with the construction of great infrastructure projects announced by the State Government, in collaboration with the Federal Government: a solar power plant, the construction of a four-lane highway in the Sonoyta-Puerto Peñasco road section and the upcoming completion of the Home Port.

The largest solar plant in Latin America

Renewable energy in Sonora will soon be a reality with the construction of a photovoltaic plant in Puerto Peñasco, which will boost competitiveness in the state, announced Governor Alfonso Durazo Montaño.

The project, which is part of the pilot plan promoted by the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has an investment of 1,644 million dollars and will be built on an area of two thousand hectares (about 4,942 acres) located next to the Mar de Cortes International Airport.

To measure the size of the future sonoran clean energy plant, the governor explained that the solar panels area will be equivalent to 315 times the size of the Azteca Stadium —one of the biggest stadiums in the country.

The solar plant will generate 1,000 megawatts and will provide electricity to more than 538,000 homes and 1.6 million consumers, with 523 kilometers of transmission lines (325 miles), the equivalent of the distance between Mexico City and Guadalajara, generating electricity without CO2 emissions or water consumption.

With this, it will be the largest solar plant of Latin America and the seventh in the world.

The operation of this plant will give Sonora greater competitiveness, generate the conditions to promote industrial, commercial and service activities, a generalized economic benefit and generate economic development throughout the entity, mainly in the desert region —in the north of the state.

Connectivity to growth

The construction of the four-lane highway in Sonoyta-Puerto Peñasco road section is another large-scale project for Sonoran tourism, also announced by Governor Durazo in September 2021.

According to Durazo, the new highway will be concessioned and will have the participation of private initiative. In addition, it will include toll booths for its recovery and maintenance. The current road will be preserved in excellent conditions so those who cannot or do not want to pay can have an alternate route.

“With the modification of customs, and highway, we are going to bring the Phoenix metropolitan area —where six million people live— closer to three hours,” he said.

Governor Durazo Montaño added that as part of this project, the Sonoyta port of entry will also be expanded, tied with the expansion plans of the US authorities, which will reduce waiting times at border crossings.

Home Port in Rocky Point

Governor Alfonso Durazo also added that Home Port in Puerto Peñasco will be completed, which, he said, will be done under a transparent process to allow efficient spending of the budget.

He added that the authorities are currently review legal aspects. Once concluded, they will begin to examine the feasibility options to complete it. It is estimated that the Home Port could require an investment of between 64.4 to 73.1 million dollars for its completion.