INTERNATIONAL SECTION
THE ENERGY TRANSITION: What practical steps could countries take to ensure that the energy transition is accelerated?
The world’s progress toward cleaner energy has accelerated dramatically. Over the last decade, renewable energy production has more than doubled globally, and its share of total primary energy consumption has grown from 9% in 2011 to 13% in 2021.
Unfortunately, the use of fossil fuels is also expanding to meet growing energy demand, which grew by 14 percent from 2011 to 2021. As a result, global energy-related emissions have increased over the past decade by about 5 percent (equivalent to 1.7 gigatons (Gt) of CO2), and the share of energy from fossil fuels has remained virtually unchanged at 82 percent.
To achieve a more efficient and orderly energy transition, a report by McKinsey proposes eight sets of actions that are needed in the short term:
Streamline the permitting process and limit the number of entities that must approve renewable energy and clean technology projects.
2. Invest in the development and modernization of the electric grid.
3. Strengthen global supply chains to secure raw materials, components and critical labor skills.
4. Decarbonize the industrial and transportation sectors by investing in new technologies such as hydrogen solutions, energy storage and carbon capture (CCUS), along with electrification and energy efficiency.
5. Limit and mitigate emissions-intensive generation to reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuels.
6. Promote energy affordability and create fair opportunities for affected and at-risk communities.
7. Develop stable and attractive remuneration frameworks, market designs and purchasing structures to encourage investments in renewable energy and clean technologies.
8. Scale up frameworks and standards for measuring the carbon intensity of energy and final products and for developing a new global carbon economy.
These global actions will be developed differently among regions and countries, and should be combined with region-specific actions to allow for a more orderly transition.
Read the full story at https://www.mckinsey.com/
NATIONAL SECTION
Last December, 85.1% of the energy was generated by hydroelectric plants.
There was a 38% monthly increase in thermal power generation.
According to the most recent report from XM, the operator of the Colombian electricity market, during the last month of 2022 85.1% of the country’s energy was generated by hydroelectric power plants. For this month, the total energy generated was 6,618.8 gigawatt hours (GWh).
This was achieved thanks to the significant added water levels in the country’s reservoirs. According to the report, by December this level reached 79%, slightly lower than the December figure (87.1%), but 11.2 percentage points above the December 2021 figure.
By regions, the Caribbean reservoirs were the ones with the highest level, reaching 94.6% of their maximum, followed by Antioquia with 88.3%, Oriente with 75.8%, Central with 72.2% and Valle with 69.9%.
However, non-renewable generation also increased during the last month of the year, with a 38% monthly increase in generation. Thus, it reached 14.9% of the total generated, whose main sources were coal and gas-fired thermal generation, according to XM.
Read the full story at https://www.portafolio.co/economia/infraestructura/
SECTION INDICATORS
The price of gasoline in Colombia is cheaper than in more than 80% of the countries in the world.
In fact, gasoline in Colombia is the 3rd cheapest in the entire American continent.
How has Colombia reached this level? The answer is simple: with a government subsidy on fuel prices. This subsidy has caused Colombians to pay a gallon of gasoline for half the price we should be paying for it, a matter that will cost the government almost 40 billion pesos this year. A figure of great proportions if we take into account that this is approximately what the annual operation of the public education system is worth.
Two major problems are evident in having the official price of gasoline and ACPM so far from their real price:
The first one is that it is a regressive subsidy, that is, it benefits high-income people more than low-income people. In fact, if a high-income citizen spends 300 thousand pesos a month on gasoline for his private vehicle, he will have received a subsidy equivalent to another 300 thousand pesos, an amount that is higher than what a household receives monthly from Ingreso Solidario, a program created by the Duque government during the pandemic to assist the poorest families in the country.
The second is that not even the tax reform to be approved by the Petro government (which is the most ambitious tax reform project in the history of Colombia in terms of new revenues) is enough to pay the gap left by the gasoline subsidy in the national budget.
Sources:
https://es.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/
Approximately 60% of Colombia’s greenhouse gas emissions are accounted for by the forestry and agriculture sectors.
Colombia’s main environmental challenge at the moment is not to increase the percentage of renewable electricity it produces from almost 70% to 99%. In reality, the main challenge is to put an end to deforestation, to stop expanding the livestock frontier into the Amazon, etc., since it is inappropriate land use that constitutes Colombia’s main contribution to climate change.
In fact, the contribution of land use to Colombia’s greenhouse gas emissions is so high that in contrast, the mining and energy sector is only responsible for 15%.
Sources:
https://es.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/
SECTOR SECTION
What is the current energy situation of the hotel sector in Colombia?
For three thermal floors (cold, warm and hot) we took the energy utility bill and divided it by the number of rooms in the hotel to get a factor of kWh/room per month.
If the value obtained is higher than the range of values we propose, it means that there are very large savings opportunities.
