7 News Belize

PM Writes Mexican President Over Energy Costs, Pushes Solar Power
posted (November 11, 2026)
While discussing the budget cuts, the PM also spoke about the crushing world price of diesel and how that's affecting the energy sector.

He explained that the Government of Belize has lost many millions from excise taxes on fuel.

He also added that BEL is still in deep debt to CFE, which has been worsened by the cost of diesel.

He told us the utility has signed a contract with a Belgian company to provide generators temporarily, with the caveat being that the true cost of generation is passed on to the consumer.

The PM said GOB will not allow that to happen and that he has personally written to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Now we're looking at the budget, and in fuel so far we have lost in excise taxes approximately $30 million plus, and the projection is that if things remain as they are, by the end of March it'll be $60 million plus. BEL continues to cry out for cash because the price of electricity from Mexico continues to go up. We have a shortage, and then when they use their diesel engines, it goes up. As an emergency defensive measure, BEL signed a contract with a company from Belgium to bring their generators here for six months at a cost of $800,000 US a month-diesel engines to produce 20 MW of electricity so that we can mitigate against blackouts. When they made that decision, 1 MW of energy using the diesel engines was around 35 cents, and now it is over 80 cents. We, as a government, cannot allow BEL-no matter who owns BEL-to pass that onto the consumer, because under their agreement they are to pass on the cost onto the consumer. So we have to step in, and we've been trying to find innovative ways into putting in money into BEL, which we hope we will be able to get back in the few years to come, and so that's what we've been doing to keep them up. I wrote a letter to President Sheinbaum asking them to be able to continue to support us to ensure we can have reliable energy, and for them not to put other charges that CFE wanted to incorporate now. President Sheinbaum then had their technical people from the Ministry of Energy and from CFE at the highest levels meet with Mr. Chebat, along with Ambassador Lynn Young and other technical people from BEL, and they had a good meeting. So we're doing all of those things to try to bring sustainability and ensure we can have energy whenever we need it."

He added that they must also work on bringing the cost of electricity down, and they will do so through solar-powered energy. Here's how he explained it:

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We declared an emergency earlier this year as a government. BEL informed PUC that there's a shortage of electricity, and then PUC went to the Ministry of Energy to tell them there's a shortfall and we need to act within a year to meet the shortfall. The Minister came to Cabinet and made the case as to why there's a shortfall, and Cabinet approved it. So now we've declared that; BEL has been negotiating with some companies, and there's several companies that are going to be solar energy. We expect, according to Ambassador Young, that by late December, early January we're supposed to get about 40 MW. We have another company in March that will come in with another 15, and with batteries by June, so once we get all of that, we will be able to start to bring down the price because the prices for solar are way cheaper than what we're getting from the other providers-so we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize