Energy Balance Analysis for Positive Energy Districts in Chihuahua, Mexico

A 2026 research report by Jorge Lucero-Alvarez models the annual energy demand and solar photovoltaic generation potential for a new residential development in Chihuahua, Mexico. The analysis establishes a quantitative benchmark for Positive Energy District viability, calculating a baseline demand of 1,536.8 MWh/year and a potential positive balance of 76.9 MWh/year after efficiency measures. The study also explores future climate scenarios, finding the positive balance would be lost by 2080 under a critical SSP5-8.5 scenario.

Use Cases

• Modeling district-level energy demand based on urban building energy simulation.
• Estimating maximum achievable solar photovoltaic generation from available surfaces.
• Calculating minimum demand reduction needed through efficiency retrofitting to achieve a positive energy balance.
• Analyzing the impact of future climate scenarios on urban energy systems.

Strengths

• Provides specific quantitative benchmarks, including a baseline demand of 1,536.8 MWh/year and a positive balance of 76.9 MWh/year.
• Includes analysis under future climate scenarios, specifically SSP5-8.5, projecting outcomes to 2080.
• Focuses on a specific, understudied context: arid, rapidly growing cities in the Global South.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data file is a DOCX document (1.1 MB), which may require extraction of underlying data.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Urban building energy simulation and solar potential estimation for a case study.

Time Range

Analysis includes future projections to 2080.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 04:29:51; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Chihuahua, Mexico.