Inclusion of non-conventional sources of renewable energy in Colombia

Abstract

In recent years, society has suffered the consequences of climate change, population growth and large-scale consumerism. Therefore, environmental awareness has emerged in the world population, especially in the new generations who have taken public places to express their concern about the future of our planet. To solve this, a pact has been developed among nations around the world in which the implementation of non-conventional renewable energies has been incentivized in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby, ensure the conservation of the ozone layer that protects the earth. In this thesis we investigate the inclusion of these alternative energies in Colombia.

After a brief introduction of the international environment, the electric context in Colombia is shown and, immediately afterwards, we investigate every potential in energy that this country possesses, their benefits and disadvantages, together with the installed capacity in the Latin American country and the possible expansion that these may have. To study the inclusion of these energies in the Colombian energy matrix, interviews are conducted with a group of energy experts in Colombia with different specializations.

The results of this research show that the inclusion of unconventional sources of renewable energy is necessary, especially in this country, due to climatic phenomenon that affects the performance of the electricity sector. The country has the capacity and potential to generate complementarity between solar, wind and hydraulic energy to create reliability in the country in terms of energy. In order to achieve this transition, the State must reinforce the existing networks and create new ones in order to connect the new energy production centers and to be able to transmit electricity all over the national territory. However, there are still alternative energies, such as biomass and geothermal energy, that have great potential in Colombia, to which no attention has been paid and therefore, their development is further delayed.