For a few days, one of the congresses leading companies in the renewable energy sector in all of Latin America.
Through the debates, conferences, meetings ... they all passed: from developers, to officials from various countries, companies, banks and analysts specialized in thinking about markets.
Airec 2017 (Argentina)
The director of the congress is Rosa Elswood, she presented some ideas about what the prospects for Argentina are in terms of renewables.
- Why did you do the event in Argentina this year?
At Green Power, when we write our conference agendas, we always start from scratch and with fairly rigorous and intense research processes. 6 months ago we began to do interviews with 85 leaders in the renewable energy sector, the financial world and environmental specialists and from this research process we realized that the Argentine market had a lot of opportunities for the future of renewables. What was needed was a platform for the industry to come together and listen to their ideas, strategies and challenges.
- Why did Argentina become a focus? Does it have to do with regulations, does it have to do with natural resources?
There are many factors. The world has its eyes on Argentina because there is a paradigm shift and also because the regulatory framework is changing. Since the law dedicated to renewable energies was created, it has evolved and the regulations to promote them. Now they have until next year for large energy consumers to ensure that 8% of the energy they consume comes from clean sources. And that speeds up the industry.
- There is also a question of prices, right?
Yes. Speaking of prices, it is also important to say that the cost of renewable technologies has dropped a lot. Now it makes sense to invest in renewables not only for environmental issues, social or moral responsibility, but also from the economic and financial point of view. This is because the technologies are cheaper, the prices are not as high as before and it is much more competitive compared to fuels.
- What are the challenges for Argentina?
I think something that was learned after the first rounds of Renovar is that you have to be realistic about the prices you get. Not all the projects that won have achieved . And I think it is something that has been learned. Another challenge is local content, which is also an opportunity because it creates jobs at the local level and is a very good opportunity to develop projects from the beginning.
- What recommendations would you make from a financial point of view or access to finance?
These days we listened to Michael Ekart of Citigroup, who advised the public to be careful with prices when planning to Renovate 2. If prices are taken care that will bring investments of development banks and private investment funds. You have to be careful and be realistic.
In fact, from neighboring countries, not only Argentina is betting on renewables, we can find several examples. The clearest exponent may be Uruguay
Uruguay
How was a small country with no known oil reserves able to lower the price of its electricity, reduce its dependence on oil, and be a leader in renewable energy?
In the last 10 years, Uruguay has achieved something that seemed impossible, becoming the country with the highest proportion of electricity generated from wind energy in Latin America and one of the main in relative terms worldwide.
Favorable conditions for wind energy
How did Uruguay manage to radically diversify its energy matrix? The country has excellent conditions for wind energy, so favorable that they surprised even the technicians themselves.
"U.S. too It surprised us because we are a country whose relief is a semi-plain, a very flat country. And when the measures were started in 2005, we thought that only some places could have a good disposition for these wind farms. On the other hand, the measurements allowed us to see that we have a stability of good wind measurements throughout the year, ”said Otegui.
Wind speed is variable, so a wind turbine it works mostly below the nominal power for which it was designed.
Therefore, the main indicator of the efficiency of a wind farm is the capacity factor, the relationship between the energy that is effectively generates in a period, and that which would have occurred if it had been running non-stop at nominal power.
«Without going into too many technical details, it is proven that the 50 MW wind farms in Uruguay reach capacity factors of between 40% and 50% for power models. wind turbines such as V80, G97, V112 and others ». In contrast, wind farms in the US, for example, operated in 2014 at a capacity of 34% in 2014, according to data from the US Department of Energy.
Plan for 25 years
Beyond the favorable conditions, a crucial factor was the 25-year energy policy planning. The 2005-2030 energy plan was also approved, as a State policy, by all the parties politicians with parliamentary representation, something that is not common, there are always interests involved.
The 25-year energy planning provided a stable framework for investors and attracted international private companies.
According to Otegui, “No subsidies were offered”, but bids with “transparency and security for the investor”.
«They are guaranteed the price they offered and that price is adjusted by a parameter that was also agreed. They know perfectly from the moment that the guidelines are presented and how that price will be adjusted and they are ccontracts that can be up to 20 years«.
