This morning the Executive Secretary of The Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization (OLACDE), Alfonso Blanco, in a dialogue with the international news network CNN en Español, said that hydrogen is one of the fuel alternatives of the future and “as a region we have the ability to become a potential exporter of renewable energy to the rest of the world, because we have the best availability of wind and solar energy resources, which are very good conditions for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to produce hydrogen at a low cost compared to the rest of the world.”
In his speech, he also stressed that LAC is one of the regions with the greatest potential for wind, solar and geothermal energy generation, adding that “we must not forget the potential that Latin America and the Caribbean have in terms of geothermal energy.”
Regarding the use of renewable energies in the region, the executive secretary mentioned that LAC has a 29% share of renewable energies in the region’s primary energy matrix. “If we compare with the rest of the world, which has approximately 13% share of renewables, our region is the greenest on the planet.”
This is related to a large share of hydroelectricity and biomass within the region’s energy matrix, he emphasized. However, he indicated that in recent years the gradual incorporation of solar and wind energy into the matrix is leading to a greater incorporation of renewable energies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“We already have a large installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic energy generation.”
On the impact of Covid-19 in the process of energy transitions in the region, the executive secretary, Alfonso Blanco, said that according to energy sector statistics obtained by OLACDE, there has been a contraction in energy demand, mainly in the industrial and commercial sectors. In the residential sector he explained that there has been an increase in its demand during 2020.
“That contraction at the demand level was found to be around 6%. However, the incorporation of renewable energies, fundamentally solar and wind energy, was maintained at the rate and growth that had been observed.”
At the end of his speech, he indicated that “at the level of fossil fuels, the replacement by renewable sources is a great opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean. There are many countries in our region that have made progress in this regard, but we also have gaps that need to be covered.”
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