Project in Argentina designs framework for nation's new renewable energy law
Argentina, 12.11.2007
Platts Renewable Energy Report
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership has teamed up with policymakers in Argentina to help draft a national strategy for implementing the nation's renewable energy policy.
Officials in Argentina, which adopted a national policy in January designed to help the country generate 8% of its electricity from renewable sources over the next 10 years, is working with the Vienna-based REEEP to implement Law No. 2190. REEEP provides funding and technical assistance to aid developing nations in fostering renewables and energy efficiency.
The Argentine statute outlines which sources of renewable energy will qualify for state support, provides tax breaks for renewable energy equipment and offers tariffs for certain renewable resources. It defines renewable energy as including small hydropower up to 30 MW as well as wind, solar, geothermal, tidal ad biomass energy and power generation from landfill gas and biogas.
The REEEP-funded project is designed to:
- identify policies for removing obstacles to renewables development;
- provide better information on natural resources and projects, especially initiatives on biomass residues; and
- adapt the present legal framework to foster the introduction of distributed generation.
The Argentine electricity market has more than 2,800 agents recognized by the rules of the wholesale electric market, which generated 96,646 GWh in 2005, REEEP reported. Renewable sources generated 1,520 GWh that year, and the amount of renewables is expected to increase to 13,000 GWh/year by 2016 under the new law.
Argentina currently produces 1.6% of its electricity from renewables, excluding large hydropower, Argentine Secretary of Energy Daniel Cameron said in a statement.
The country has accelerated the push for renewable energy this year, issuing an atlas cataloging its wind energy resources to attract investors; approving a partnership between Emgasud, an Argentinean gas distribution company, and Chubut province to build a 430-MW natural gas plant and an associated wind power plant; and developing small hydropower and biogas resources.
The project spotlights one of REEEP's major strategies: knocking down barriers in various countries to renewables development.
"All around the world, renewable energy is blocked by idiosyncrasies," REEEP spokesman Peter Richards told Platts. "We take the risk. We fund the projects to show how to remove the barriers."
Richards said the objective is not to shape a nations's renewable energy agenda but rather to help policymakers in developing nations forge policies that will allow renewables to flourish.
"We're not trying to single-handedly create a market," he said. "REEEP isn't a bank. We see our role as helping create market conditions. Then capital will flow, and we step back."