Impact of the pandemic on the development of renewable energies in Colombia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a change in the behavior of human beings because they have faced different issues, such as global warming, largely the result of the emission of greenhouse gases from industrial activities and, the coronavirus, a pandemic that caused many effects on the development of daily life of the whole society. As a result of this health crisis, Colombia witnessed a sharp alteration in energy consumption. To mitigate the changes caused by these situations, this thesis investigates the importance and need to intensify the progress and implementation of non-conventional sources of renewable energy in order to ensure compliance with energy demand and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. After a brief introduction to the environmental context, the Colombian energy matrix is shown, then an investigation is carried out about the installed capacity, potential, advantages and disadvantages of non-conventional renewable energies in Colombia. To study the impact of covid-19 on the advancement of these energies, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted, under a qualitative approach, with a group of experts in the Colombian energy sector with different specialties and experiences.

The results of this research show how the pandemic impacted the development of non-conventional renewable energies in Colombia. The country, thanks to its geographical position, has the necessary resources to complement the energy matrix through the development of wind and solar energy. Even so, in order to achieve the expansion of the energy supply, the state must not only encourage research into other energy sources such as biomass and geothermal energy, but must also strengthen the existing regulatory framework in order to provide the right environment for more electricity projects to be developed from these four unconventional renewable energy sources.