2024-01-29 20:23:02
Renewable Energy Summit (SER)
The week of the Renewable Energy Summit (SER 2024) has arrived, an event organized by Ager, which highlights the importance of the country in promoting more renewable energy in the country. The future of humanity and the planet depends on the way we produce energy: a reliable, affordable and decarbonized energy system is essential.
By Juan Carlos Zapata
According to research by the Spanish company Acciona, “renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal, are inexhaustible on a human scale and generate very low greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels. This helps reduce the carbon footprint and mitigate climate change.”
At a global level, Guatemala is one of the leading countries in the world, having one of the highest percentages of renewable energy consumption in relation to total energy. According to the most recent data from the World Bank as of 2020, 65.46% of the total energy consumed was produced by renewable sources, one of the highest percentages globally. In Latin America, other countries, such as Paraguay and Uruguay, have percentages around 61% and the global average is 41%.
That is why this forum is so important, to show that the Guatemalan energy system is a key model for development. According to the World Bank, the country has made great progress in having a population with access to electricity. In 1995, only 60.8% of the population had access to electricity, compared to 97.9% in 2020. This implies that we still have to make significant efforts to increase coverage. In departments like Alta Verapaz, for example, almost half of the population does not have electricity coverage. This is where the subsidiary role of the State becomes so important, so that through the INE and with the support of loans such as the IDB and other multilaterals, progress is made in rural electrification, to generate greater development.
These encouraging data, which are not seen in other infrastructure sectors, are thanks to the fact that the Guatemalan energy system made the necessary legal reforms to increase investment and provide certainty towards investment in the country.
This Wednesday, during the SER 2024 agenda, we will hear more about the regulatory foundations of the electricity sector, the General Electricity Law, institutions, legal certainty and investment, as well as competitiveness and energy independence, among many other key topics in a day of everything the day, where Ager’s strategic proposal and the message of the President of the Republic will also be presented, who will surely comment on the importance of the electricity sector in investment attraction plans, certainly one of the sectors that will have a lot of investment due to the tenders that were made last year for expansion and what should be advanced this year.
Now, one of the most important challenges is how to advance in the positioning of renewable energy investment in rural areas. The support that the authorities can generate to give confidence to investors and generate a climate of predictability in terms of investment, both private and public, is key for the future of the electricity sector and especially to promote more energy from renewable sources. Increasing the energy supply is key, especially due to the large number of industrial parks that are being established in the country and the jobs that are being generated. The moment is now.
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