Is Colombia on Track to Make the Shift to Renewables?
Energy attorney Inés Elvira Vesga spoke with The Dialogue's Energy Advisor about Colombia's renewable energy sector and its long-term strategy for transitioning to renewables. Colombia recently finalized a deal to construct an offshore wind facility, a first for the country, that can generate 350 megawatts of electricity. Ms. Vesga explained that there is a growing appetite for renewable energy development in Colombia, with regulations being adapted to favor self-generation, distributed generation and large-scale projects. She said the challenge will be to ensure these projects can connect to the grid successfully and environmental licenses can be obtained reasonably. Despite these steps, she added, oil and gas will continue to be a major source of income for Colombia, especially its social investments. Overall, she remarked, the country is following the path it established by focusing on wind and solar while simultaneously exploring biomass, geothermal and green hydrogen.
"Colombia is taking orderly steps to achieve the energy transition, and the regulation follows the roadmap that the government designed," she commented. "Natural gas will fuel the transition to renewables, and this was defined in the transition policy."