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Wind Power News: Colombia
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Colombian wind farm end-of-life raises circularity and Indigenous questions
On Oct. 9, Colombia’s first wind farm, Jepírachi, officially reached its end of life after running for almost two decades in Uribia, in the northeastern region of La Guajira. After months of uncertainty regarding the project’s future, the wind farm has been disconnected from the national grid and is pending dismantlement. But with Colombia’s regulation gaps for disposing of renewable energy projects, experts are worried whether Jepírachi’s phaseout will be circular or create more waste. Indigenous communities in the area . . . Complete story »
Transition to “clean energy” is hurting Indigenous communities
When Francisco Calí Tzay, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, spoke at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, last week, he listed clean energy projects as some of the most concerning threats to their rights. “I constantly receive information that Indigenous Peoples fear a new wave of green investments without recognition of their land tenure, management, and knowledge,” said Calí Tzay. His statements – and those made by other delegates – at . . . Complete story »
Enel suspends Colombia wind farm construction after years of protests
The Colombian unit of Italy’s biggest utility, Enel, indefinitely suspended the construction of a wind farm in Colombia’s north on Wednesday after a series of protests by local communities. The decision comes two weeks after Enel reached an agreement with the communities to allow development to proceed normally after three years of delays. Located in the municipalities of Maicao and Uribia in Colombia’s La Guajira department on the border with Venezuela, the Windpeshi Wind Farm project was slated to generate . . . Complete story »
A transition to clean energy was supposed to be equitable. Instead, it’s hurting Indigenous communities.
When Francisco Calí Tzay, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, spoke at the 22nd United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, last week, he listed clean energy projects as some of the most concerning threats to their rights. “I constantly receive information that Indigenous Peoples fear a new wave of green investments without recognition of their land tenure, management, and knowledge,” said Calí Tzay. His statements – and those made by other delegates – at . . . Complete story »
Colombia to open new wind farm amid indigenous protests
To protect the wind farms in development, the Colombian army has deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the Upper Guajira area. Complete story »
Winds of change blow through indigenous lands in La Guajira
Looking like huge, beached white whales in an arid landscape, the wind turbine’s blades lie on the ground. This is Cabo de la Vela, a remote village on the northern tip of the Colombian Guajira, a huge desert region on the Caribbean coast. The turbine is one of ten on the first wind farm to be built in Colombia in 17 years. It will stand 78 metres tall, each blade 49 metres long. The turbines are the new improved variety . . . Complete story »
In Colombia, Indigenous lands are ground zero for a wind energy boom
It started about four years ago, when SUVs and pickup trucks drove uninvited onto their lands, remembers Olimpia Palmar, a member of the Indigenous Wayúu peoples, who have historically occupied the La Guajira desert in northern Colombia and Venezuela. “We started seeing these arijunas [Wayuúunaiki for non-native peoples] wearing construction helmets and boots and vests, getting out of the cars, checking the desert, and then leaving,” she recalls. Word soon began circulating across the Guajira Peninsula, from the rancherías – the . . . Complete story »
The Green erasure of indigenous life
Off the cliffed coast of La Guajira, Colombia’s northernmost province, two neat lines of 20-story-tall wind turbines tower over a cluster of clay huts and goat herds. Since 2004, the wind energy pilot project known as Jepírachi, created to study the prospect of wind power in the region, has stood as the only wind farm in Colombia. But with wind proven to be a viable renewable energy option, companies are flocking to the region in a bid to transform La . . . Complete story »
Colombian wind potential held up by hydro
Colombia’s potential for hydroelectric capacity could delay the development of wind energy in the country for several years, despite new legislation supporting wind and solar, the head of the country’s largest energy group told Windpower Monthly. “The trouble is that Colombia has a gigantic wealth of hydraulic resources, we can still grow a long way in hydroelectric generation, that is our strength,” said Juan Esteban Calle, CEO of utility Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM). “As a result, alternative energies such . . . Complete story »
