It seems to be the right time to be in the business of renewables in Colombia. Indeed, the Santos government – which was reelected in May – enacted a key law promoting renewables and efficiency.
Seen by local newspapers as a key step to impulse what are called in the country ” non conventional energy sources “ which include solar, wind, geothermal, marine energy sources and more interestingly, biomass and waste to energy.
One of the main benefits of the Law 1715 is to enable people and companies generating their own electricity to sell it to the grid or to other users. Until now, the surplus had to go to waste.
To spur investments in this domain, the Colombian government has enacted various fiscal incentives including Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption for all machinery, equipment, elements or services as well as customs duties exemption for the same equipment.
The last of these main advances of this law is that it creates a fund for both renewable energy sources as well as for energy efficiency. This fund, called FENOGE, will heop finance small projects as well as promote good practices and energy efficiency.
According to the local newspaper La Republica, Colombian electricity is made out of 65 percent hydro (with over 9,700 MW of capacity), 33 percent thermal and the remaining two percents come from other sources (that would be renewables)