Ecuador plans with geothermal in new long term energy policy
View to Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador (source: flickr/ Jaime Golombek, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
21 Nov 2016
With its new long-term energy policy, Ecuador is betting on renewable energy and sees geothermal energy in a key role for the future energy mix of the country.
Ecuador is in the process of establishing its long term Energy Policy with the objective of having a functional energy matrix for the requirements of the production matrix of the country in order to boost the creation of new development clusters, the substitution of imports, technology transfer, increase of export, innovation and the creation of new quality working places for the next 25 years.
In October 2016, the government of Ecuador published the National Energy Agenda 2016-2040, a public policy document which objectives are the consensus about the current situation in the industry and the elaboration of future development scenarios for the sector and the way each of them will evolve. This information will be the base for the construction of the Energy Policy.
The official document mentions that in the future Ecuador could have one of the most competitive and clean power generation matrix, generating more than 90% through renewable sources.
Up to now, Ecuador does not have any geothermal MW of electricity online and the geothermal potential is estimated in 1.000 MW.
In the National Energy Agenda 2016-2040, geothermal energy will play a role in the objective 2.1, which refers to the consolidation a more renewable and efficient energy matrix besides the diversification of the power generation matrix in renewable and non-conventional energy sources.
The document can be download here (pdf).
Source: Ministerio Coordinador de Sectores Estratégicos del Ecuador via PiensaGeotermia
