The Dominican Republic participated virtually in the Latam Future Energy meeting, which seeks to encourage renewable energies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
On behalf of the Government, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, stated that the energy transition represents a great challenge for the Dominican Republic, for which reason the current administration is focused on stimulating and producing energy from renewable sources.
He stated that, in order to achieve the energy transition, in the first year of administration, they signed contracts for the purchase and sale of 800 megawatts of energy based on renewable energies.
Minister Almonte emphasized that this initiative to promote the production of clean energy, promoted by President Luis Abinader, is aimed at achieving a more diversified energy matrix, less dependent on international markets and that goes hand in hand with the environment.
He said that more than 80 percent of the plants operating in the country use fossil fuels and that 100 percent of this fuel has to be bought in the international market, since the nation does not have oil deposits, but that they are working to counteract this situation by stimulating and producing renewable energies in order to have a self-sustainable electric system in the future.
97% of the population with electricity service
“The Dominican electric system needs a big boost in the introduction of renewable energies, as we are doing in this specific case. During the last 12 months we have signed PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) contracts for around 800 megawatts of solar photovoltaic projects, which are being installed, to be injected into the electricity system by the end of 2023,” he said.
Almonte pointed out that, with these contracts for the production of energy from renewable sources, the Dominican Republic is in a deep process of energy transition, thus moving towards the goal of achieving by 2030 that 30 percent of the energy produced in the country will be from renewable sources.
Likewise, the official highlighted that 97 percent of the Dominican population has access to electricity service. “President Luis Abinader wants to strongly promote the incorporation of 100 percent of the Dominican population to have access to electricity.”
He explained that the Ministry of Energy and Mines has a Rural and Sub-urban Electrification Unit (UERS), which is working to connect remote communities so that they can have access to the electricity system and thus fulfill the goal of providing electricity to the entire population.
The activity, organized by Latam Future Energy, was attended as panelists by the Deputy Ministers of Energy, Rafael Gómez and of Energy Saving and Efficiency, Alfonso Rodríguez, accompanied by the Director of International Relations of the MEM, Gustavo Mejía-Ricart.
Deputy Minister Gómez spoke on “The role of solar and wind energy in the Caribbean of the future”, while Deputy Minister Rodríguez spoke on “Distribution generation and storage: great allies of the industrial, commercial and residential sectors”.
Numerous representatives of companies linked to energy production in the country, as well as foreign investors interested in entering the business, are participating in the activity, which is being held today and tomorrow, Thursday.
