The potential of the Caribbean region of Colombia for the development of wind energy projects

The Alta Guajira area, due to the quality of its winds, concentrates the majority of works for the generation of wind energy.
“Due to its resources, the Caribbean Region has enormous potential and all the conditions to become a pole for the development of renewable energies, especially wind energy, due to the winds in the coastal area and those that are potentially offshore, for the development of offshore wind projects, ”explained Germán Corredor, president of the Renewable Energy Association (Ser Colombia).

Alta Guajira has the best wind conditions, therefore, according to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the nine wind projects currently in the region are concentrated in that department (see graph).

The characteristics of the area are also conducive to the development of solar projects. “The conditions of the Caribbean Coast are some of the most favorable in Colombia, because there it is possible to take advantage of the radiation conditions, to the extent that there are more hours of daytime sunshine, which allows greater generation capacity of the systems ”, Noted Marcos Páez, GreenYellow’s commercial director.

These conditions have been used for the development of three solar energy projects: La Loma and El Paso, in Cesar, and Campano, in Córdoba. These, however, are not the only ones since, as Corredor added, there are also several ongoing projects of various sizes, especially solar, which are being developed by private companies in various departments in the region.

The biggest challenge is in the construction of networks

Although the region’s potential as an energy generator is clear, one of the greatest challenges is associated with the construction of networks that allow the megawatts generated in the Caribbean to be brought to the center of the country, where the areas with the highest energy consumption are. For this reason, it is essential to continue promoting the construction of transmission lines, such as Colectora 1 and Colectora 2, and other smaller but equally important ones.