CAF Corporación Andina de Fomento : Central America and the Caribbean, in search of new...

28 de December de 2015

A group of experts debated at the GEOLAC 2015 regarding the possibilities that Central America and the Caribbean have to improve production and efficiency of the geothermal sector. In addition, they analyzed the measures that must be adopted in the region to contribute to both energy security and cleaner production.

Among the conclusions of the event stands out the challenge of generating geothermal energy as, in the face of the exploration risks in early stages presented by this type of technology, as well as with oil wells, requires a drilling process that may not be successful; on average,for every ten drilled wells, only 6 or 7 have the potential to produce.

During the event, CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, presented the Risk Mitigation Fund for Geothermal Energy, which offers risk reduction during the drilling stage of the project, and the Technical Assistance Fund to coordinate the program's activities.

CAF, together with the main multilateral investors of the region, created the Development Facility for Geothermal Projects in Latin America, a mechanism designed to mitigate the financial and exploratory risks during the early stages of the development of projects for geothermal electric energy generation.

CAF's actions are concentrated on the development of fields in the region, in order to reduce the emission of 50 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, and provide clean and inexpensive energy to more than 2 million people. The facility will start operations in 2016.

Currently, geothermal generation contributes only about 0.3 percent of the world production of electric energy and, compared to investment flows toward other non-conventional renewable sources of energy, the amounts recently channeled to develop geothermal capacity are noticeably inferior.