Colombia publishes Geographic Standard for Geothermal Information

City view, Medellín, Colombia (source: flickr/ *Iván Erre Jota*, creative commons)

Carlo Cariaga 13 Sep 2022

The Colombian Government has worked to advance the energy transition for Colombia and, through its Congress, published Law 2099 of July 10, 2021, which defines provisions for the use, development and promotion of non-conventional sources of energy, including geothermal energy.

In “Chapter III of the Geothermal Resource,” is the geothermal registry where all those projects for exploration and exploitation to generate electricity will be registered. On the other hand, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (Minenergia),
published Decree 1318 of July 27, 2022 which regulates the development of activities aimed at generating electricity through geothermal energy, and Resolution 40302 of August 5, 2022, which establishes the technical requirements that will govern the Geothermal Registry and geothermal resource exploration and exploitation permits.

For its part, the Colombian Geological Service (CGS), a Science and Technology entity linked to Minenergia, represented by the Geothermal Research Group, actively participated from the beginning of the geothermal working tables developed from 2016 to 2020, carried out with Colombian government entities, with the support of the IDB and led by Minenergia, and with the participation of state and regional entities such as the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, autonomous corporations, the Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME), among  others.

As a contribution to this inter-institutional effort, the CGS published in November 2021 the Approach to the geothermal potential of Colombia (Alfaro et al., 2021), estimated at 1170 MWe; and supported the definition of annexes 1 and 2 of Resolution 40302 of August 5th 2022 issued by Minenergia.

The Annex 1 “Geothermal exploration information delivery guide” was defined for the information generated by public and private entities in terms of geology, geophysics, fluid geochemistry, conceptual modeling of geothermal fields; and the Annex 2 “Guide for delivery of well drilling information and its evaluation” was defined for the information generated by the drilling of geothermal wells and their evaluation.

Additionally, the Geothermal Research Group of the CGS recently published the Cartographic Standard for Geothermal Information (ECIG) as a milestone for the entity. This document is the first Colombian CGS geographic information standard, prepared in accordance with the guidelines and policies of the Colombian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ICDE), which guarantees the interoperability of the data, not only for the CGS, but also at an intersectoral level and national, because it complies with ISO and NTC standards.

The goal of the ECIG is to define the basic guidelines for the storage and cartographic representation of the geothermal data
acquired in the geothermal exploration areas, which guarantee the quality, organization and uniformity, thus being the technical support to comply with the delivery of information required in Annexes 1 and 2 of Resolution 40302 of 2022. The information will be integrated from geology, geophysics, geochemistry, geomorphology and elements of geothermal energy, in accordance with the SGC standards, for its availability to the scientific and academic community and the general public.

Therefore, the inter-institutional efforts of the Colombian State are focused on the significant progress in the recognition and investigation of geothermal resources, in the definition and establishment of the regulatory framework for the use of the resource; and the granting of tax benefits, such as incentives, for the generation of electricity with non-conventional energy sources (FNCE), including geothermal energy, and efficient energy management, in accordance with
Law 1715 of 2014, modified by Law 2099 of 2021.

Source: Email correspondence via our Spanish language platform PiensaGeotermia

Carlo Cariaga

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