35 años de investigación, innovando con energía EULARINET Latin American-European Workshop on Renewable Energies September 21st -22nd, 2011 Mexico City, Mexico Overview of Renewable Energies in Latin America Jorge M Huacuz Gerencia de Energías No Convencionales Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía The Latin American Energy Dilemma Fuente: OLADE Energy Statistics Report 2007

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía 25% of the energy supply in Latin America comes from renewable energy sources Fuente: OLADE Energy Statistics Report 2007

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Typical motivations for the use of RE in the Latin American Region Substitution of oil imports Solving energy supply problems in rural areas Solving local environmental problems Attracting investment capital (???) Few programatic efforts to create locally the corresponding value chains

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Observable patterns for the introduction of Renewable Energy in the Region Technology push-type projects Frequently promoted by outside forces not always in coordination among them or with local agencies: Multilateral and bilateral development agencies Commercial companies importing technologies not always fully developed or suitable for local conditions. NGOs usually with more enthusiasm than technical knowledge Not always taking into account local, environmental or socio-political aspects (La Ventosa: Clean Energy, Dirty Business) Frequently in a vacuum of legal and regulatory principles Without real technology transfer or local capacity building

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Latin America in the Global Renewable Energy Context

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Prospective RE growth in the LA Region through 2018 Fuente: OLADE Las Energías Renovables en América Latina y el Caribe. Octubre 2006

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Summary of Conclusions from the CIBER-CIIER 2011 Latin America Renewable Energy Forum All LA countries have good prospects to develop renewable energy resources The main RE technologies in the energy matrix of LA countries are: small hydro, wind and biomass Only Costa Rica and Mexico have operational geothermal power plants; Colombia and Chile have prospective studies to install 50 MW and 40 MW geothermal power plants, respectively Solar energy applications are limited to small scale photovoltaic applications for rural electrification No relevant initiatives on solar thermal concentrating technologies and ocean energy technologies could be identified in the region Brazil is the leading country in the application of RE in the region, due in part to government programs such as PROINFA (and World leader in bioethanol production) Costa Rica shows the highest RE Penetration Index with over 90% of electricity generation with RE Most LA countries have implemented their own regulatory framework for RE, although some are more advanced than others Emphasis on electricity generation with RE is a common denominator of most LA countries; little is being done in connection with the production of heat and cold for industrial processes or commercial and domestic applications, including bioclimatic architecture

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Main Barriers Identified by the CIBER-CIIER 2011 Latin American Renewable Energy Forum Technical Not enough information on the locally available RE resources Variability and intermittency of power generation with RE Restrictions of the locally available electricity transmission infrastructure Lack of local technical knowledge and experience in this field Lack of local supply of RE equipment Normative & Regulatory Framework Lack of regulations for distributed generation and net metering Excessive bureaucracy in the permitting process, especially environmental permits Restrictive energy policies and lack of will to create economic incentives Economic & Financial High initial capital investment and rates of return on investment below expectations Difficulties in rising initial financing Lack of incentives for the penetration of other RE in countries with high availability of hydroelectric potential Social Growing environmental opposition to some RE electricity generation projects High expectations of land owners for growing profits from project developers

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Final Comments Prospects for the massive implementation of RE in Latin America are good, but: Most countries still lack suitable institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks Few countries have undertaken the task of properly evaluating, characterizing and mapping their renewable energy resources to facilitate planning, decision making and project development Regional technology stocks (hardware, software, orgware) are very limited or non-existing at all Foreign technology is being indiscriminately imported, including implementation models: there are no internalization and tropicalization processes in place Human capacities, critical for the construction of local value chains, are not being properly and timely built The Latin American population in general is not fully aware of the values and benefits associated to the use of renewable energies: the final decision for adoption of RE belongs to the user

35 años de investigación, innovando con energía Gracias..... Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas Gracias…. Thank you…..