Latin America is leading the drive for sustainable energy globally thanks to its environmental resources. Its power is of such magnitude that the renewable energy capacity in the region exceeded 290 gigawatts in 2021, which represented an increase of 67% compared to what was produced ten years ago. These data show that the region is an attractive destination for those seeking to promote sustainable energy projects, It is for this reason that every day it attracts more interest from businessmen and governments that are looking for strategic allies to carry out their energy transition plan.
(Colombia would present an electricity integration plan in Latin America).
And the truth is that among a variety of sustainable energies that can be found in the ecosystem, solar energy has become the undisputed protagonist of the energy transition, since it is a inexhaustible source that allows us to collect and take advantage of the sun’s rays, reduce the use of fossil fuels, eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and gradually reach energy self-sufficiency, without forgetting that it combines very well with the electrical network.
This is why Unergy, the collaborative financing platform that allows investing in solar energy projects, decided to go one step further and started an initiative to transform the country and create the first community of farmers producing clean energy.
It seeks for owners of flat land close to electrical distribution networks to become farmers producing clean energy by putting their land for solar energy production and also becoming investors in these projects, according to what was mentioned by Eduardo Ospina Serrano, co-founder and CEO of Unergy.
(These are some companies that are making the energy transition).
The how, explains Ospina, is allowing people from all over Colombia who have two hectares of land to use it for the construction of solar farms, where around 2,500 solar panels will be located, which will produce an average of 200,000 kWh/month, equivalent to the average energy consumption of 1,000 Colombian homes.
This energy will be distributed by the electrical network to the regions close to where each installed project is located and will manage to avoid an average of 2,780 kg of CO2 per day.
“Unergy has always focused on democratizing and decentralizing access to energy assets, for this reason, we decided to carry out this initiative that will allow people who previously could not produce their own energy and own it. We want to add millions of Colombians to this idea of being part of a community of farmers who produce clean energy and eliminate industry monopolies, so that, in this way, they too are a key factor in consumption costs. from service”, the manager stressed.
These types of projects were thought through two models, the first, is for those people who have the space, but do not want to invest, in this way, this startup is in charge of investing in the construction and development of the solar farm, and the owner of the land will earn an annual lease. On the other hand, there is also the investor model, which is for those people who not only offer the space but also invest capital in the construction of the solar farm, which allows them to generate income from the sale of energy and the use of space, which also have tax benefits such as a 50% discount on the investment in rent.
It should be noted that not long ago the study Global Climatescope Ranking, highlighted Colombia as one of the five most attractive Latin American nations to invest in renewable energy. Something that comes after investments in non-conventional renewable technologies such as solar and wind power exceeded US$952 million during the year.
(Colombia is one of the most advanced countries in hydrogen).
Ospina points out that it is an excellent time to promote the idea of sustainable farmers or clean energy producers, since in Colombia only 18% of the land is used to be cultivated, and being clean energy producers allows for greater productivity of the itself, which not only generates an environmental impact, but also a social one. Well, today Colombia has 40 million hectares of agricultural potential, that is, that is the agricultural frontier, but today we barely have seven million hectares planted.
This is how a future begins to take shape in which, although crops and livestock farmers will exist, there will also be a community of Colombian producers who will be transforming the world by producing clean energy. In this sense, there is no better opportunity than to start promoting change now, by participating in this type of project, to see multiple solar farms grow in different territories of Colombia.
In Colombia, the accelerated growth of non-conventional renewable energies began in 2014 with Law 1715, adding tax benefits to this type of investment, such as VAT discounts, tariffs, a 50% discount on income investment and accelerated depreciation. which allowed the sector to have exponential growth in the country.
Nevertheless, solar energy projects could not sell energy to the grid, so CREG 030 came out in 2018which allowed energy consumers to put up solar panels and sell energy to the grid, in addition to allowing small projects, called distributed generation, to connect to nearby points of consumption and sell energy directly to the grid.
The regulation in 2018 intended that distributed solar energy projects be carried out throughout the country, however, until 2021 no such project was carried out, since the regulation limited their capacity to 100 kW (approximately 250 panels), so there were no scalability benefits in the size of the project and they did not close financially.
For this reason, CREG 174 was created at the end of 2021, which increased the installed power of distributed generation projects to 1 MW and added additional benefits to the payment of energy generation, which made it possible to give financial viability to this type. of projects with the benefit that they are quick to implement with respect to larger projects.
