Atera Energy, Backed by Brookfield and Celsia, Enters Mexico with US$350 Million

Atera Energy, backed by Canada's Brookfield and Colombia's Celsia, announced on August 18 its entry into Mexico with a minimum investment of $350 million by 2030, according to Bloomberg Línea. The self-generation and energy efficiency firm will target manufacturing zones in Nuevo León, Coahuila, Guanajuato, and Querétaro, the states facing the greatest electricity demand pressure.

The announcement comes amid the reconfiguration of Mexico's electricity sector. According to Forbes México, the Electricity Sector Law passed in 2025 reserves at least 54% of electricity injected into the national grid for the state, leaves up to 46% for private participation, and includes provisions for distributed generation and self-consumption. Atera's CEO, Luis Felipe Vélez Restrepo, said at a press conference that the company had studied the recent regulatory changes in depth. For the region, Atera's entry illustrates how North American and Andean capital is converging on the border industrial corridors that supply export manufacturing to the United States.

Atera operates the Energy as a Service model: it designs, finances, and operates solar energy and storage infrastructure, compressed air, thermal systems, and gas cogeneration in exchange for a tariff. The company estimates Mexico's distributed generation potential at up to 10,000 MW and will seek to serve 4%, approximately 400 MW. In 2024, a legal reform raised the distributed generation limit from 0.5 to 0.7 MW without requiring a permit from the regulatory authority. In Latin America, Atera counts more than 500 industrial clients and 200 MW in rooftop solar, and plans a regional investment of $500 million by 2030, according to Forbes México. It is present in Colombia, Panama, Honduras, and Peru. Brookfield manages approximately one trillion dollars in assets and Celsia belongs to the industrial conglomerate Grupo Argos.

The next indicator to watch is grid expansion. The Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) plans to launch projects in 2026 totaling approximately 6,000 MW of generation capacity, along with 66 transmission projects, 44 of them this year. Atera's target of 400 MW distributed will be measured against the saturation of the electrical system.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.