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Articles 1 - 30 of 34
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Dominican Republic: First Steps To Green Economy, Charles Arthur
Dominican Republic: First Steps To Green Economy, Charles Arthur
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In October, the countrys first wind farm, near the western town of Juancho in the province of Pedernales, began generating electricity. The US$100 million project, built by public and private investors, was opened by President Leonel Fernández, who said that the 33 megawatts of wind power that the farm will generate was the first step toward helping the Dominican Republic reduce its dependence on petroleum imports.'
Pri Candidate Enrique Peña Nieto Proposes To Expand Efforts To Open State-Run Oil Company Pemex To Private Investment, Carlos Navarro
Pri Candidate Enrique Peña Nieto Proposes To Expand Efforts To Open State-Run Oil Company Pemex To Private Investment, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Taking a position similar to that of recent presidents from the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and his own Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto suggested that private investment is necessary to keep the staterun oil company PEMEX viable.
Large Desalination Plant Proposed For Playas De Rosarito In Baja California, Carlos Navarro
Large Desalination Plant Proposed For Playas De Rosarito In Baja California, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
A proposed waterdesalination plant in Playas de Rosarito in Baja California state has drawn some opposition from environmental advocates in the US, but experts in Mexico and an official for a binational infrastructurefunding agency are open to the facility as long as the plant is environmentally sustainable.
Proposed Highway Pits Bolivia's Indigenous Against Each Other And President Evo Morales, Andrés Gaudín
Proposed Highway Pits Bolivia's Indigenous Against Each Other And President Evo Morales, Andrés Gaudín
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Native peoples from the Bolivian Amazonia—the lowlands—who do not feel represented by President Evo Morales are staging a prolonged protest against the construction of a highway through a natural park that is also their ancestral habitat. On Aug. 15, they began a more than 600 km march to La Paz, the capital, planning to arrive in the second half of October. They will meet directly with Morales, who is also indigenous and the first head of state to receive an indigenous delegation at the Palacio Quemado, the seat of government.
Brazil Opens First Commercial Solar Power Plant, But Continues To Underutilize Solar Energy Potential, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazil Opens First Commercial Solar Power Plant, But Continues To Underutilize Solar Energy Potential, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
While the unstoppable growth of solar power seems to have gained a foothold in Brazil, countries with a temperate climate and much smaller territory, such as Germany and Spain, produce much more solar energy. Brazil, which has the largest territorial area in the tropics, meaning a huge amount of sun, is simply not taking advantage of its situation.
Green Economy Does Not Necessarily Mean Sustainability, Adriana Sánchez
Green Economy Does Not Necessarily Mean Sustainability, Adriana Sánchez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
A number of multinational corporations have adopted the concept of a "green economy," a model that allows the private sector to implement practices that save energy and reduce pollution. These corporations have not hesitated in using the terms "green" or "sustainable" in their mission statements and in marketing products ranging from shampoo to hydroelectric projects. And while there are some good-faith efforts to promote good environmental practices, critics argue that the moves are more cosmetic and that the bottom line remains profit and not sustainability.
After Kickoff By Former President Mel Zelaya In 2008, Honduran President Lobo Lays Cornerstone For Wind Farm To Start Generating In 2012, George Rodríguez
After Kickoff By Former President Mel Zelaya In 2008, Honduran President Lobo Lays Cornerstone For Wind Farm To Start Generating In 2012, George Rodríguez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In 2008, only months before his downfall via a coup, Honduran President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya announced a 100-megawatt, US$269 million wind power project--with debt-financing support worth US$220 million jointly provided by the US Export-Import Bank and the regional Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE). Some 24 km south of Tegucigalpa, the Cerro de Hula wind farm is a project developed by Globeleq Mesoamerica Energy (GME)--a financial-services firm in Central America better known as Mesoamerica Energy, a subsidiary of the UK-based Globeleq--focused on developing, building, and operating renewable-energy projects throughout the region. GME's first transaction in the region was the acquisition, …
Mexico Announces Plan That Would Greatly Expand Wind-Energy Capacity, Carlos Navarro
Mexico Announces Plan That Would Greatly Expand Wind-Energy Capacity, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Mexico launched a number of projects in the first eight months of 2011 that would greatly expand the countrys capability to produce electricity from wind power. The new projects are all funded with private capital, with the largest announced in late July. Under this project, the California-based Cannon Power Group had agreed to invest about US$2.5 billion in the construction of three wind-power parks in Mexico. The facilities—in the states of Baja California, Zacatecas, and Quintana Roo--would have a combined capacity of 322 megawatts.'
Costa Rica Decrees Moratorium On Oil Exploitation For Remainder Of President Chinchilla's Term, George Rodríguez
Costa Rica Decrees Moratorium On Oil Exploitation For Remainder Of President Chinchilla's Term, George Rodríguez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla's administration decided to say no to oil exploitation in this Central American nation's territory, declaring a three-year moratorium on the activity on Aug. 1. The measure covers the remainder of the administration's four-year term (2010-2014), and it came amid loud protests from environmentalist quarters angered by news about a possible signing, by the Chinchilla administration and the US-based Mallon Oil Company, of a contract allowing the latter to explore and eventually exploit the oil and gas it might find in Costa Rica's northern region, bordering Nicaragua.
Pemex Boosts Participation In Spain's Repsol, Prompting Some Nationalist Concerns In Spain, Carlos Navarro
Pemex Boosts Participation In Spain's Repsol, Prompting Some Nationalist Concerns In Spain, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
It's not uncommon to see the state-run oil company PEMEX at the center of controversies regarding the designation of energy resources as the national patrimony of the nation's citizens. This debate has often been in connection with Mexico's crude oil, natural gas, and PEMEX itself. In late August, PEMEX found itself on the other side of the conflict when it teamed up with Spainbased construction and real estate company Sacyr Vallehermoso to boost their share of Spanish giant Repsol YPF SA. The two companies acknowledged that their intention was to restructure Repsol's management. Even though Spain's Constitution does not have …
In Colombia, Blossoming Biofuel Industry Driven By Top-Down Targets And Incentives, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
In Colombia, Blossoming Biofuel Industry Driven By Top-Down Targets And Incentives, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In the span of just a few short years, Colombia--already a major oil and coal producer--has developed an entirely different energy industry: biofuels. The industrys pedal-to-the-metal production surge has attracted no shortage of admirers, who hail the biofuel bonanza as a model worth emulating. Others, however, question the social, economic, and even environmental implications of harvesting fuel from the country's fertile fields.'
Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
For the past four decades, Brazil has moved to replace petroleum with highly efficient sugarcane-based ethanol, primarily to protect against recurring global oil crises and address concerns about the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions on the environment. Despite the immense promise of the ethanol industry, however, Brazilian drivers who choose to fill their tanks with the biofuel continue to face uncertain supplies and unstable prices. Even before being sworn in on Jan. 1, 2011, Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rousseff met with her agriculture minister-designate Wagner Rossi to request that he confer with ethanol producers to inform them how dissatisfied the government was …
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Awards First Exploration Contracts To British, Mexican Companies, Carlos Navarro
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Awards First Exploration Contracts To British, Mexican Companies, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In what President Felipe Calderóns administration is calling a historic move, the state-run oil company PEMEX awarded its first-ever contracts to foreign and Mexican private companies to conduct oil exploration and extraction activities in the Carrizo, Magallanes, and Santuario fields in Tabasco state. The move to bring in private investors to primary activities was made possible by reforms the Congress approved in 2008 to overhaul PEMEX. But critics are suggesting that the contracts go beyond what is allowed under the 2008 changes and therefore violate the Mexican Constitution.'
Despite Government Approval, Chiles Hidroaysén Dam Project Sill Not Done Deal', Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
Despite Government Approval, Chiles Hidroaysén Dam Project Sill Not Done Deal', Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Flip-flop rulings have left the fate of the controversial HidroAysén venture, a multibillion-dollar dam scheme slated for southern Chile's Patagonia region, very much up in the air. The recent roller-coaster events have made one thing clear: in Chile, energy matters--once the exclusive domain of private utilities companies--are now becoming everyone's business. The project's developers, Spanish-Italian electricity giant Endesa and Colbún, a Chilean utility, have been pushing for the past five years to build a network of hydroelectric plants along the Río Baker and Río Pascua, a pair of powerful rivers that flow through Chile's far southern Aysén Region. HidroAysén, as …
Brazilian Environmental Agency Gives Belo Monte Dam Green Light As Government Continues To Invest In Hydroelectric Power, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazilian Environmental Agency Gives Belo Monte Dam Green Light As Government Continues To Invest In Hydroelectric Power, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
On June 1, 2011, the Brazilian environmental agency, the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA), gave the government the green light to proceed with construction of the controversial Belo Monte dam. After 30 years of planning and struggle against opposition to the project, the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant will be built in the Xingu river basin. This would be the third-largest such facility in the world, after the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipú dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay. IBAMA conceded the license despite national and international criticism and a recommendation …
Ecuadoran Government Set To Resume Armadillo Oil Project Despite Opposition From Indigenous Communities And Environmentalists, Luis Ángel Saavedra
Ecuadoran Government Set To Resume Armadillo Oil Project Despite Opposition From Indigenous Communities And Environmentalists, Luis Ángel Saavedra
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The Ecuadoran government reopened a call for tenders for the Armadillo oil field, in the Amazonian province of Orellana, where evidence has been found of settlements and movement of the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples, who remain in voluntary isolation. The new call for tenders has produced a controversy, not only among environmentalists, the indigenous movement, and the government but also within the government team, since the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples are beneficiaries of protective measures called for by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Cubas Oil Plans Gather Speed With Foreign Aid Causing U.S. Concern', Daniel Vázquez
Cubas Oil Plans Gather Speed With Foreign Aid Causing U.S. Concern', Daniel Vázquez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Cuba is accelerating its oil-sector investments to increase its production, triple its refining capacity, and tap potential reserves in its exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico through a strategy that is attracting foreign companies and motivating environmental as well as political concerns in the US.This year, the island will produce about 28 million barrels of oil. Cuba generated 21.4 million barrels in 2010, which in addition to natural gas represents 46% of its energy consumption. Oil supplied by Caracas, Havanas main political and economic ally, meets the rest of the country's needs. Cuba will start drilling exploratory wells …
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Announces Discovery Of 'Significant' Natural-Gas Reserve In Deep Waters Of Gulf Of Mexico, Carlos Navarro
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Announces Discovery Of 'Significant' Natural-Gas Reserve In Deep Waters Of Gulf Of Mexico, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In late May, the state-run oil company PEMEX announced the discovery of what it considers a "significant" reserve of natural gas in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. While the size of the reserve was impressive, some analysts pointed out that low prices, high extraction costs, and an uncertain global market for natural gas take some of the luster off the discovery.The natural gas was discovered while PEMEX was exploring for new supplies of crude oil at the Piklis-1 well, which, at a depth of 5.4 km, is the deepest that PEMEX has drilled to date. The reserve …
Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez
Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Brazil has found great success building its ethanol industry with the use of sugarcane, and there are suggestions that other countries in Latin America might replicate this feat, allowing them to use biofuels to increase their energy independence. Central American countries and Cuba share some similarities with Brazil, and they are the ones often mentioned for potential growth in biofuels. These countries face significant obstacles because of a lack of infrastructure and inadequate energy policies, which make them particularly dependent on foreign imports of fossil fuels to partially satisfy their populations' growing energy demand.
Mexican Government, Congress Support Nuclear Power To Varying Degrees; Detractors Want Laguna Verde Power Plant Closed, Carlos Navarro
Mexican Government, Congress Support Nuclear Power To Varying Degrees; Detractors Want Laguna Verde Power Plant Closed, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The threat of a nuclear mishap in Mexico, similar to the disaster that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in March, has ignited a debate on whether the Mexican government should proceed with plans to expand the capacity of the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant in Veracruz state. The plant, property of the state-run electric utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), operates two boiling-water reactors fueled with enriched uranium and provides 3% to 4% of Mexicos total electricity needs. The plant has an installed capacity of nearly 1,400 megawatts. The Japan disaster has prompted a group of …
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan has increased pressure on the Brazilian government to justify the use of nuclear power, but there is little evidence that President Dilma Rousseffs administration plans to make any major changes to Brazil's nuclear-power program (Programa Nuclear Brasileiro, PNB). Rousseff has made no direct public comments about the PNB since the accident in Japan, but Secretary of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante reiterated the government's intention to continue the program, launched in 1985 with the inauguration of the Angra 1 power station during the administration of then President José Sarney …
After Fukushima, South America Reassesses Nuclear-Power Push, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
After Fukushima, South America Reassesses Nuclear-Power Push, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The recent nuclear disaster in Japans tsunami-damaged Fukushima reactor has shaken--but not buried--plans for an atomic energy surge in South America, which right now has just four of the world's 442 nuclear power plants. Prior to the accident, analysts had anticipated something of a nuclear renaissance in South America. Non-nuclear countries like Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay were seriously flirting with the atomic-energy option, investing public funds in exploratory studies and/or signing nuclear-technology accords with countries like Russia and France. At the same time, Brazil and Argentina--the two South American countries with atomic power facilities already in place--had begun expanding their …
Uruguay Banks On Wind Power, Andrés Gaudín
Uruguay Banks On Wind Power, Andrés Gaudín
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Little more than two years after initiating a wind-energy pilot project, Uruguay has made a decisive commitment to substantially change its energy matrix. In April, besides sealing various agreements, it held a series of invitations for bids to offer the private sector—-national or international—-contracts to build several wind parks in the next four years that will allow the country to add 500 megawatts of energy produced by the generous winds that sweep across almost the entire territory. Since the first project was inaugurated in October 2008 by the Argentine firm Nuevo Manantial, which contributes 10 MW of installed capacity to …
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Looking Into Purchase Of Oil Refineries In U.S., Carlos Navarro
State-Run Oil Company Pemex Looking Into Purchase Of Oil Refineries In U.S., Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The state-run oil company PEMEX is exploring the possibility of acquiring a partial or full share of at least one refinery in the US to increase its processing capacity and boost the domestic supply of gasoline. The move would complement the government's plan to construct the Refinería Bicentenario in Hidalgo state. The refinery, which would have the capacity to process 250,000 barrels per day, had originally been planned to begin operations in 2015, but PEMEX has deferred construction of the facility and has given no clear explanation for the delay. The company has had some internal conversations about acquiring refinery …
Wind Power Present, Not Prodigious In Chiles Energy Market', Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
Wind Power Present, Not Prodigious In Chiles Energy Market', Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Little by little, Chile is plugging wind power into its otherwise conventional electricity grid. So far, however, the sectors contribution to the overall electricity supply remains minimal, leading some analysts to question whether the country's private energy providers are really ready to welcome the proverbial winds of change. Chile added the latest piece of its power puzzle this past February, when French multinational GDF Suez cut the ribbon on five new generators for its Monte Redondo wind park in the Coquimbo Region, roughly 325 km north of Santiago. With the expansion, Monte Redondo now boasts an installed capacity of 48 …
Chile Skirts Clean Energy Focus, Approves Two Major Coal Projects, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
Chile Skirts Clean Energy Focus, Approves Two Major Coal Projects, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Promises by President Sebastián Piñera to give Chiles electricity matrix a green makeover went up in proverbial smoke last month when authorities approved a pair of costly coal projects: one, an open-pit mine in the far south; the other, a massive coal-burning power plant slated for the northern Atacama region.'
Mexico Announces New Wind-Energy Project In Oaxaca; Critics Say Government Not Doing Enough To Promote Renewables, Carlos Navarro
Mexico Announces New Wind-Energy Project In Oaxaca; Critics Say Government Not Doing Enough To Promote Renewables, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
At the recent economic conference in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2011, President Felipe Calderón went out of his way to boast about a new agreement that the Mexican government had just reached with the Spanish engineering company Iberdrola to construct a wind-energy plant in Oaxaca State with capacity to generate 20 megawatts of energy. After all, Calderón has gone to great lengths to promote his administration's commitment to environmentally friendly and renewable energy. This effort helped the Mexican president convince the UN to hold the latest round of negotiations on global climate change in Cancún in December 2010. Yet, despite …
Chevron Trying To Avoid Historic Ecuador Verdict, Luis Angel Saavedra
Chevron Trying To Avoid Historic Ecuador Verdict, Luis Angel Saavedra
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Judge Nicolás Zambrano of the Corte Provincial de Justicia in Sucumbíos, Ecuador, handed down a historic ruling ordering oil giant Chevron-Texaco to pay US$9.5 billion for environmental damages incurred during 28 years of oil exploitation during which the company used obsolete technology and deliberately released more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the northern Amazon region of Ecuador. Sucumbíos province has a long history of plundering of its natural resources, beginning in the 1940s with the exploitation of rubber and lumber. But it was oil, discovered in the early 1970s, that caused the greatest devastation in the region. …
Chile's Tiny Gas Industry A Big Problem For President Sebastián Piñera, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
Chile's Tiny Gas Industry A Big Problem For President Sebastián Piñera, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Although it represents just a small slice of the countrys overall energy pie, Chile's minor Patagonia-based natural-gas industry is causing major political problems for first-year President Sebastián Piñera. An anomaly in Chile's otherwise privatized energy sector, the state-owned Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP) extracts a modest amount of natural gas from oil fields it controls in Magallanes, an area of southern Patagonia also known as Region XIII. The homegrown industry is an exception in Chile, which satisfies the bulk of its fuel needs with foreign imports. In the country's more populous central regions, natural gas--used not only for heating and …
Belizes Oil Boom Threatens To Escalate Border Dispute', Louisa Reynolds
Belizes Oil Boom Threatens To Escalate Border Dispute', Louisa Reynolds
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Belizes decision to grant four oil contracts in a border area known as the Adjacency Zone, which extends one kilometer on either side of the 1859 treaty line, could reignite tensions with neighboring Guatemala. During the past two years, Belize has granted 17 oil-exploration contracts--four in the Adjacency Zone--to a wide range of US, British, Irish, and Taiwanese corporations. Guatemalan Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas explains that his country is currently claiming Belize's entire land, insular, and maritime territory, which is why it is important to monitor all oil-exploration activity in the Adjacency Zone. Rodas admits that there are no legal …