Energy transition in Colombia on pause due to indigenous resistance

The screams of a Wayuu indigenous in a forum of renewable energy convened at the University of La Guajira in May made it clear that the path to develop this type of project in that region of Colombia it will be longer and more tortuous than expected.

“La Guajira is not for sale”, sentenced the protester supported by other members of the ethnic group, who interrupted the event attended by the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez, as well as local authorities.

The fierce opposition of the Wayuu communities, along with the delays in environmental licenses, have jeopardized the plans of more than a dozen multinationals and President Gustavo Petro, who seeks an energy transition to move the country away from oil dependence and charcoal.

The delays are more worrying because of the arrival of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which portends droughts that would put pressure on the production capacity of the country heavily dependent on hydroelectric power, threatening to cause shortages and rate increases.

La Guajira is the region of Colombia with the greatest potential for these energies due to its high-speed winds that would offer a generous production, added to the country’s location on the equator line that offers greater solar radiation.

Some companies, like Italy’s Enel, have begun delaying projects indefinitely blaming community protests, which could put billions of dollars in investment at risk if entrepreneurs seek other destinations.

Not even the one-week stay in June of Petro -the country’s first leftist president- and his cabinet in La Guajira managed to convince many Wayuu leaders, who argue that companies and officials do not consider the impact of projects on the environment. environment and their spiritual beliefs.

In addition, they alert the effect against their traditional means of subsistence and property rights over their lands.

“Here what is censored is not the projects within the territory, but the way in which they are being carried out, they are projects that have been carried out behind the back of the community, contrary to their fundamental rights”said José Silva, director of the Wayuu Nation movement, which represents more than 600 indigenous authorities.

“They simply sit down to negotiate authorities, politicians and businessmen, but not with the ancestral owners of the territory,” explained.

Petro has promised to ensure that communities benefit from the projects and, in some cases, even participate in their execution.

Silva said that his group did not manage to meet with the president or his ministers during the visit, but that the Wayuu who attended were left with “more doubts than certainties”.

In May, Enel halted indefinitely the construction of the Windpeshi wind farm -which would generate enough energy to supply 500,000 homes- due to community blockades, after cost overruns of more than US$ 250 million and three-year delays in which only half of the work was done. time.

“This decision was made after various analyzes that considered the situation that the project is going through in terms of de facto and security pathways”said Eugenio Calderón, manager of Enel Green Power for Colombia and Central America.

The Wayuus say they have no choice but to resort to blockades to stop projects they have not authorized and that the protests are due to poor relations with the companies.

Since 2019, the South American country has attracted more than fifty wind and solar energy projects from companies in various countries, such as EDP Renewables, Enel Green Power, Energi, Brookfield Asset Management, AES, Enerfín, among others, with a projected generation of 2.43 gigawatts of wind power and 0.1 gigawatts of solar power.

Although many projects were slated to come online last year or this year, none have succeeded.

The companies did not respond to questions.

“We have managed to unlock some and we want to move them all forward,” Petro said at the congressional installation on July 20, but admitted that the goal of increasing solar, wind, and hydraulic energy generation by 6 gigawatts during his government “they may also have difficulties going forward.”

About 2.5 gigawatts, 42% of that goal, are intended to be produced in La Guajira, according to government figures.

“There is considerable interest from companies in Denmark as well as from other countries in Europe and North America that even see potential”, said the Danish ambassador to the country, Erik Hoeg. “We are waiting a bit in some cases for a clear regulatory framework, for example for offshore wind power,” He added after admitting that there are also two investment funds interested.

The diplomat emphasized that there must be a dialogue with the communities and considered that the country cannot miss the opportunity to even become an exporter of new generation energy products.

“Capital also has alternatives in the region, there are other Latin American countries that are also starting with ambitious political strategies to boost their generation of green energy”he warned.

Regional conflicts grow

The challenges in La Guajira resemble those in Chile, where indigenous communities resist lithium developments; and Mexico, where dozens of wind, solar and other renewable energy projects are on hold awaiting permits.

The Wayuu communities argue that several jobs carried out by companies have caused the death of hundreds of goats – one of their main livelihoods – and violated sacred territories where they bury their ancestors.

“Our landscape as a Wayuu people is going to be totally changed by the wind turbines that will come in to replace the trees, which will displace the birds, even even spirituality itself,” Silva warned.

The director of the Wayuu Nation assured that the projects have provoked confrontations between land owners and other indigenous people who have negotiated with the companies, which has resulted in the death of at least 10 people in the communities that he represents alone.

“In the State, nobody knows whose indigenous territory it is, nobody knows whose territory the Wayuu belongs to and they are very complex in that sense,” said Joanna Barney, a researcher at Indepaz. “So when the company believes it has licensed the park and wants to start the construction phase, the real owners appear and that’s where the whole conflict begins.”

The Wayuu indigenous ethnic group is the largest in the country, with some 400,000 inhabitants.

Paradoxically, the apparently more environmentally friendly renewables industry faces similar obstacles to oil and mining companies, which have long been the main source of income for Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

“Unfortunately, these projects have had significant delays (…) due to problems in their environmental licensing, in their prior consultation processes with the communities and have had different events of social conflict that have prevented operations from being carried out in the expected times”said Alexandra Hernández, president of the Colombian Renewable Energy Association, SER.

Yotired investors

The environmental authority shelved the license for two wind farms from Portugal’s EDP Renewables arguing that the company failed to identify potential impacts on each area of ​​the project, including access roads, and did not adequately characterize protected areas.

EDP ​​Renewables said in a letter to several ministers that the filing of the license, added to the conflict with the communities, would mean that the project, which was due to start operating in January 2022, is now delayed until December 2024, for which reason it requested adjustments of regulation.

“It is necessary to strengthen, from the regulatory point of view, the regulations that currently exist for the licensing of this type of project; regulation that naturally must be differentiated with respect to non-renewable energy projects”he claimed.

Colombia has an installed capacity of 300 megabytes in alternative renewable energies, less than 1% of the country’s electricity generation, which is dominated by more than 70% by hydroelectric plants.

The planned renewable projects could produce 20,000 megawatts, enough electricity to serve 11 million people, just over a quarter of the country’s population, according to SER, which represents more than 90 companies.

Each megawatt installed requires between US$700,000 and US$1 million of investment, with which the potential amount would reach up to US$20,000 million.

Added to this are another 80 projects located in 16 departments that would require investments of close to US$3 billion, of which 65% have pending procedures, several of them with delays of years, according to SER.

Companies need more government support or they could follow Enel’s example, said Alejandro Lucio, director of Óptima Consultores, which advises companies in the sector.

“We have all done a lot of boom with the issue of renewables, but the projects are not operating and it is not seen that they will enter the next two yearsLucius said. “Investors are getting tired.”

Source: Reuters