Better Late than Never for Renewable Energies

Checking out a windmill's blades.

Colombia has a tiny but growing and enthusiastic renewable energy sector. They were on display this week at an exhibition at the Colombian Engineers Association, in La Candelaria.

Colombia's renewable energy sector is tiny: wind and solar combined total only 0.1% of the energy supply, altho 86% of Colombia's electricity does come from relatively clean hydroelectric power. But renewables are growing, in part thanks to new regulations, including one enabling generators to hook up to the grid and even to sell their surplus energy there. And next January the government plans to receive offers to purchase ten-year contracts for renewable energy.

The country also has some large potential projects, including one planned for land along the

Deinpro's plans for a solar farm
along the Magdalena River.

Magdalena river by the Bogotá-based Deinpro Global. A company official told me the project is to power some 1.5 million homes, but that they still need financing - which might come from the Andean Development Corporation or the Chinese Development Bank.

Another company, which works with solar panel and wind projects, told me that Colombia's best winds are in coastal regions, including the La Guajira peninsula, where farms are already operating and another large one is underway.

A solar panel model.

Some Colombian companies are also benefiting from the international market in climate change bonds, which pay companies for installing renewable energy generation. The money comes from climate change gas-generating industries in industrialized nations which want to compensate their pollution.

However, this enthusiasm shouldn't distract from the fact that Colombia is an important producer of coal and petroleum and plans to produce as much fossil fuel as it can during the next years. Altho almost all of those fossil fuels are burned overseas, they pollute the air and alter the climate of the whole planet - including Colombia's.

And to give just one example of the dire straits the planet is in, airline travel is expected to keep growing by an incredible 7 or 8 percent annually, and CO2 generated at high altitude produces much more potent cliate chaging effects. And Bogotá recently expanded its airport - and plans to build a second airport.

And lots of renewables won't do much good for the planet unless they actually replace polluting energies, instead of being additions to them.

The expo.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Renewable Colombia?

The Jepirachi windfarm on the La Guajira peninsula

Colombia's record-breaking flooding coincided with the Cancun conference on global warming, providing a great excuse to talk about Colombia's potential as a renewable energy producer.

Two long coasts mean wave, tidal current and possibly even wind energy, lots of sunlight (although lots of clouds), lots of biomass and even volcanic activity, Colombia has little excuse not to exploit its huge renewable energy potential.


A recent report by Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Inter-American Development Bank found that Colombia had potential for more than 46 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, including 25 GW of small hydroelectric projects and 21 GW of windpower, as well as solar, biomass and geothermal. (How much is a gigawatt? Enough to power 750,000 homes in the U.S., and many more in Colombia.) Right now, Colombia produces a tiny 1.5% of its energy from renewable sources and hopes to expand that only to 3.5% by 2015 and 6.5% by 2020. (The Colombian government defines only small hydro projects as 'renewable,' while in fact 80% of its electrical generating capacity is hydropower.)

There's lots of good reasons why Colombia could be a pioneer in renewable energy, use it to replace fossil fuels and provide reliable power to remote regions where the power grid doesn't reach. Colombia could even start exporting renewable energy technology. South Africa appears to be doing that. It's also in Colombia's interests: government officials have blamed this year's disastrous floods on global warming, and warming is predicted to melt Colombia's glaciers and destroy much of its wetlands.

The development bank report recommended that Colombia institute policies to promote renewable energy generation, such as guaranteeing markets and stable prices.

Instead, however, Colombia is going full bore for old-fashioned fossil fuel exploitation, meaning oil, natural gas and coal. Fossil fuels are not only terrible for the environment; in the long term, they could undermine the nation's economy, institutionalizing corruption, economic instability and even authoritarianism, as has happened in many big petroleum exporters, including neighboring Venezuela.

A concrete example: the other day I talked to a Mexican textile trader who used to import cloth from Colombia. But Colombia's peso has risen so much that it's cheaper to import from India and China. (Why Mexico can't competitively make its own textiles is another issue.) The peso's rise is in great degree due to investment in the fossil fuel extraction sector. So, the jobs-scarce fossil fuel industry is hurting the jobs-instensive textiles industry. Not only that, but resource extraction industries are also notorious for generating corruption and financing outlaw organizations. A case in point is Occidental Petroleum's Caño Limon pipeline near the Venezuelan border, which used to be bombed regularly by the ELN guerrillas whenever they weren't satisfied with their protection payments. More oil, coal and natural gas exports might just make Colombia into another Venezuela, which exports petroleum and imports everything else.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours