Colombia’s 9.48 GW solar project pipeline

Some 341 solar projects have been approved or are under review in Colombia, according to a registry compiled by the Mining and Energy Planning Unit.

The authority revealed the figures in a new report published via its Twitter social media account. The figures show solar makes up 68.47% of the nation’s planned renewable energy assets, ahead of hydroelectric facilities, which supply 24.7%.

Colombia is planning an 18.38 GW clean energy generation portfolio, of which solar will contribute 9.48 GW, hydro 4.45 GW, wind 2.55 GW and biomass 2 MW. Some 1.9 GW of capacity will also be secured from planned thermoelectric assets, which generate current from differences in temperature.

Breakdown

Among the PV projects, 159 have a generation capacity of less than 1 MW, 59 range in scale from 1-10 MW and 27 are bigger than 100 MW.

The clean energy report shows the southwestern department of Valle del Cauca has the largest share of the country’s PV projects, with 46 facilities.

The solar project pipeline in the clean energy registry had reached 3.55 GW of generation capacity by the end of May and included 700 MW and 300 MW facilities. At the time, the list also included five PV projects with a 200 MW capacity and separate facilities with 181.2 MW, 120 MW and 102 MW as well as three 100 MW and three 99 MW assets.

Colombia had just 90 MW of installed solar capacity at the end of the year, according to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) figures, having added just 4 MW during 2019.