“The Barranquilleros will have environmental renewable energy”

The reduction of greenhouse gases, the generation of qualified jobs, savings in billing and consumption, improvements for the public network and energy security in the face of possible external climatic events, are some of the benefits that the district government seeks for Barranquilla with the creation of a business unit attached to the Alumbrado Público company.

The district mayor, Jaime Pumarejo Heins, said that it is an energy and environmental commitment that will generate important resources to finance the development of the city and whose assembly will cost 40 million dollars.

According to the project design, the business unit will generate enough energy to meet the consumption of 300 public entities, including hospitals, sports venues, security agencies and District schools. The initiative contemplates the intervention of an approximate area of ​​261,035 square meters of roofs.

The project establishes that initially a photovoltaic solar generation park will be installed.

In a second phase of the project, the business unit will go from self-generation to generation, to supply energy to the city’s public lighting and then sell to the national interconnected system.

In the first case, an installed power of 29.9 MW (combined) of power is foreseen in roofs and parking lots of all public institutions, and of 11.9 MW of peak power for the consumption of public lighting.

“This is a very important leap in our purpose of becoming a biodiverciudad,” said the president, specifying that the new company will take advantage of the natural potentials of this area of ​​the country to generate solar energy and later wind energy.

Due to its geographical location, Barranquilla has an average of 6 to 7 hours a day with sunlight and an average wind speed between 10 and 13 m / s, which makes it a strategic point for the development of energy projects renewable.

A press release indicated that the District expects billing savings of between 12 and 42%. Likewise, that the company generates income in Colombian pesos for more than $ 640 billion at the end of the project and an accumulated profit of more than $ 220 billion.

“Renewable energies are friendly to the environment and essential for sustainable growth, but they also boost economic growth, create jobs and improve health,” said the mayor.

Energy capital. The district president also indicated that the generation project will allow “to become the energy capital of the country,” after recalling that Barranquilla is the only Colombian city accepted as a member of the World Association of Energy Cities.

Being the energy capital of Colombia means giving the message that, through institutional and legal strengthening, “we will provide investors in the sector with the possibility of speeding up procedures and legal powers so that their projects can be fully developed, respecting the existing normativity and regulation and, what is very important, contributing to climate change ”.

“This is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious projects in the vision of a new Barranquilla that we are already living,” he stressed.

Take care of the environment. The city has already been making progress in that direction. In recent years, it has made investments in order to preserve the environment, which began with the modernization of 64,900 street lighting luminaires to LED technology, the planting of more than 200,000 trees and the recovery of bodies of water.

Now it will add the new renewable energy company, plus the planned intervention in the Mallorquín swamp that will allow the recovery of around 700 hectares and the assembly of urban forests on the perimeter of the city.

Impact of the project

According to Mayor Pumarejo, the project has an impact on the environment because there is a reduction in greenhouse gases.

There will also be savings in billing from 12% on average, increasing to 42%, allowing the stabilization of energy costs for public entities in the long term, and will also reduce operating costs.

The energy consumption of the public network is reduced by 40%, having a positive impact on the voltage levels of the network, contributing to the improvement of the distribution service.

With the installation of photovoltaic systems on the roofs, a decrease in the internal temperature of the establishments is expected, improving conditions. Additionally, it will improve the efficiency of the energy sector in terms of security against extreme weather events through the diversification of generation technologies.

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