Moby Dick and Renewable Energies: Beyond Electricity in 2026

After reading "Moby Dick," the novel by Herman Melville, we all remember the obsessive and tragic quest of Captain Ahab and his crew aboard the whaling ship Pequod to hunt down the enigmatic white whale that mutilated his leg.

Let's pause there for a moment. The world the character inhabits is reduced to the hunt for a single whale, which occupies a significant place in this captain's life, and we see how this hunt ends in tragedy for the entire crew. 

What does this have to do with renewable energy? Let's begin our discussion. 

According to the 2024 National Energy Balance, Mexico consumes approximately 5,300 PJ (Peta Joules), roughly equivalent to 1.8 million barrels of oil per day.

However, this same document indicates that the transportation sector consumes 45.49% of this energy, while industry consumes 33.95%, meaning that, combined, these figures represent 79.44% of national consumption. 

This highlights a similarity to the Pareto Principle, which states that approximately 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. This principle provides a key guideline for prioritizing and maximizing efforts. Now, if we examine these two sectors more closely, we observe something very interesting: in the Transportation sector, electricity consumption represents only 0.22%, meaning that, relative to the overall consumption, it accounts for just 0.10% of national energy consumption.

Likewise, within the industrial sector, electricity consumption represented 38.6%. Again, applying this percentage to the 33.95% gives us 13.10% of national consumption. What does this mean? If we add the electricity consumption of the transportation and industrial sectors, this only represents 13.20% of national consumption. 

What about the residential, commercial, public, and agricultural sectors? Remember that they consume only 20.56% of national energy consumption. This includes other energy sources such as firewood, LP gas, dry gas (commonly called natural gas), diesel, among others. Therefore, their consumption will be much lower.

But let's do the math for the benefit of our readers. In the agricultural sector, electricity represents 1.00% of national consumption; in the commercial sector, it's 1.46%; and in the residential sector, it's 5.23%. Adding all these figures together, we get 7.68% of total national energy consumption. 

Where does all this lead us? Electricity will represent 20.84% ​​of national energy consumption. Now, let's keep that figure in mind. Mexico aims to reach renewable clean energy targets of between 38% and 45% by 2030, according to the 2025-2030 Energy Sector Program. Let's assume the highest scenario, 45%, which would then represent only 8.75% of national energy consumption.

At the end of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab and the whale disappear into the sea; the surviving crew members watch them drift away and live to tell the tale. 

There are numerous efforts to increase the share of renewable energy sources of electricity, and these actions are highly commendable. 

But, can't we look for new horizons? We have other energy sources like natural gas, LP Gas, fuel oil, diesel, among others, where integrating renewable energy is complex, and there are no clean energy targets, much less targets for the percentage of renewable energy use.

Energy sources are not limited to electricity alone, although many people oversimplify this, and this becomes a true fallacy, a real sophism, as it attempts to claim that electricity is the “only energy source,” when our energy system is complex. 

This completely ignores other energy sources, their context, and their interactions within our national framework. “The world is a ship on its outward journey, and it is a journey of no return…” Melville wrote in that oceanic odyssey; but we have the choice to board other ships with seas to discover. 

We hope our dear readers will tell us about their voyages across other “energy seas.”