A new report “Private Investment in Wind Power in Colombia“ by David Robinson, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Alvaro Riascos, Quantil SAS, and David Harbord, Market Analysis Ltd, was published in July 2012.
The report examines the feasibility of private investment in wind power in Colombia within the existing regulatory framework. It focuses especially on the regulatory methodology for estimating the “firm energy” that wind power plants are capable of providing in Colombia to back up hydro generation during extended periods of drought (El Nino weather events). Our conclusion is that the current methodology probably underestimates wind’s firm energy contribution, and this in turn means that wind power stations receive a lower firm energy payment than they should. This is an important barrier to investment in wind power in Colombia and the report recommends that the Colombian Government reconsider their methodology for estimating the firm energy capacity of wind power and of other (non hydro) sources of renewable power.
The report was commissioned by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Latin America Prosperity Fund and builds on previous work on this topic funded by the World Bank.