“The State is the one who should take the lead when it comes to promoting the laws that must be activated in this area,” recommend specialists.
Venezuela is one of the Latin American countries with the greatest potential to generate solar energy, according to the map of the Global Atlas of Renewable Energy, but the lack of public and investment policies prevent the sun from being an option to mitigate the declared electricity crisis in 2009.
The solar potential in Venezuela is around 236 watts per square meter, only 40 points below the Atacama desert in Chile, the area with the highest capacity for photovoltaic energy in America.
Engineer Iván Díaz, a specialist in photovoltaic solar energy, explained to Efe that this potential is not limited to some areas, but can be found throughout the Venezuelan territory, due to the “privileged geographical position” with between four and six hours of daily solar irradiation and winds of between 8 and 9 meters per second in the more than 1,200 kilometers of coastline.
However, he clarified that it is “the State who must take the lead as regards the promotion of the laws that must be activated in that area. Unfortunately, in our country there is no legal framework that allows us to promote ”the use of this type of energy for now.
No laws or plans
For Díaz, the lack of a legal framework is one of the main obstacles around the promotion of plans that seek the exploitation of solar and wind energy.
“Venezuela is very backward because we do not have laws on the matter. There are some laws, but they are not really specifically in the area and a framework law is needed that allows implementation in this type of energy ”, explained the specialist, who also explained that no sustainable plans have been developed to mitigate the crisis. using energy from the sun.
In Venezuela, 60% of the electricity supply is supplied by the El Guri hydroelectric plant, in the south of the country, but various specialists point out that power cuts and failures will be inevitable until the system ceases to depend excessively on this reservoir.
The engineer Luis Ramírez, in charge of the master’s degree in Quality Systems at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), adds other difficulties on the way to the use of solar energy, such as the minimum costs of electricity service, which in Venezuela are one of the lowest in the region, and the investment involved in generating solar energy.
“You have to make an honesty of the cost of energy because if not, all the investment is not reimbursable and, how do you do maintenance, how do you buy new equipment, how do you make it sustainable? Because we could think of it as an immediate solution, but it is not like that ”, Ramírez clarified to Efe.
He explained that, although photovoltaic energy systems are one of “the technologies that are lowering their cost”, they imply a significant initial investment that is rewarded over time by the duration of the equipment and its efficiency, but the total budget does not exceed what that it costs to build a hydroelectric plant like El Guri.
Díaz agreed when saying that “it is possible that the initial investment is high, but when we see that the useful life of a solar module is between 25 and 30 years, it means that we have an inexhaustible source.”
Private projects
small projects and private companies try to show that photovoltaic solar energy is a solution to the electricity crisis.
At UCAB, “El Techo Verde” is positioned as one of the few initiatives in the Venezuelan capital that promotes the use of renewable resources such as solar energy.
Gabriel Fernández, an expert in environmental development and part of this house of studies, told Efe that the space has been operating since 2019 and has 30 solar panels capable of providing energy to the entire garden in the upper part of the building, in addition to two rooms from the UCAB postgraduate area.
The College of Engineers of Venezuela is another institution that sets an example at its headquarters, where it houses a plaza lit by street lamps whose light comes from solar energy.
Díaz explained that they work to add to the change in Venezuela, by “fostering” these small initiatives that aspire to grow. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
