GREEN ENERGIES
RENEWABLE ENERGY POTENTIAL IN VENEZUELA
In order to reduce CO2 emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures, decarbonizing the energy system involves replacing the fossil fuel energy sources currently used – coal, oil, and natural gas – with energy sources that emit a lot less carbon dioxide as are hydroelectricity, wind and solar energy.
In this sense, with the installation of hydroelectric plants in Guayana, Venezuela had already advanced to the stage of the neutral carbon energy.
Additionally, given the climatic conditions in Venezuela, the country also has a great potential for the generation of solar and wind energy.
Green Hydrogen, generated from any of the renewable energies that Venezuela can provide, is another important source of renewable energies that the country can produce, and is treated in a separate section of this web page.
HYDROELECTRICAL POTENTIAL
In Venezuela, Bolívar State (Guayana Region) has an important hydroelectric potential, part of this already exploited and available in-built dams, and a significant portion still usable for the construction of new electricity generation infrastructures.
Venezuela’s potential for non conventional renewable energy exists across the whole country, from Margarita Island and the Paria Peninsula in the far east, through the densely populated centre-north, and even reaching areas of the Andes mountain range and the south, being the highest numbers found in the most north-western states, such as Zulia and Falcón.
This great potential, for non conventional clean energy generation in Venezuela, can be appreciated at solar and wind maps produced by prestigious institutions and experts in these matters.
High wind speeds of between eight and nine metres per second are frequent in many areas of the east, north-central, south and west of Venezuela.
The country also has an important solar potential, as high as 85.5% of the potential of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the area with the greatest solar energy potential on the continent.
To date, this potential has been exploited incipiently, therefore it is available for the formulation and execution of projects aimed at supplying energy to the electricity grid, or for being linked to PPAs in electricity-intensive industrial projects.
