Colombia. Ecopetrol and AES Colombia put into operation the largest solar energy self-generation park ever built in the country, located in the municipality of Castilla La Nueva, in the department of Meta.
The Castilla Solar Park, which required an investment of close to US$20 million, has an installed capacity of 21 megawatts (MWp), equivalent to the capacity to power a city of 27,000 inhabitants. It will serve to supply part of the energy required by the Castilla field, the second largest in Colombia, with a production close to 115,000 barrels of oil per day.
The work was executed in 7 months and generated employment for 388 people, including more than 100 women, mostly from the region.
Precisely, on this subject, the President of Colombia, Iván Duque, stressed that the companies that arrive in the regions are taking advantage of the workforce they find in the localities.
The Head of State assured that the project generates almost 400 jobs, "where more than 80 percent are local jobs. It is something that we also wanted to promote from the Government", with Ecopetrol, with many companies, that when they are working in the territories, the workforce is local.
In his speech, the President recalled that when he came to the Government there were only 60 megawatts of installed capacity of renewable energies and that when he said that he wanted to reach 1,500 megabytes "many believed that this was a utopia, that this was impossible."
However, he added, "we have managed, in what was the first reliability charge auction, to secure 1,398 megabytes in investment projects."
He noted that "a year ago, the installed capacity of non-conventional renewable energies was only 0.1% of the energies of our matrix. We are going to reach 10% by 2022, and we have made an additional commitment: to reach 20% by 2030. That shows what our country's great energy ambition is."
He also referred to the progress that the Government has had in environmental matters and highlighted the entry into force of the Electric Mobility Law, "which will lead to, in the coming years, we set the goal of making a replacement to have about 600,000 electric vehicles."
He also spoke of the 'Artemis' campaign, which has managed to reduce deforestation by 12%; the implementation of the Circular Economy, the first in Latin America; of sustainable livestock, with silvopastoral schemes, and the purpose of planting 180 million trees "by 2022".
"We will continue to add more efforts, but that shows that we have a great productive awareness, where business development coexists with the environment," he emphasized.
With regard to Ecopetrol's Castilla Solar Park, President Duque stressed that "in terms of capturing CO2 emissions, it is equivalent to more than 15,000 trees; there are more than 150,000 panels installed, which show that there can be a great productive harmony in our country."
Source: Ministry of Mines and Energy.
