In November of 2011 a solar photovoltaic (PV) energy project began construction on the roof of the “National Energy Commission” (CNE) headquarters in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. CNE is the institution responsible for overseeing the energy sector in the Dominican Republic. The solar PV energy project was completed in January 2012 with a total installed capacity of 22 kilowatts (kW) and an estimated annual generation of 35,358 kWh, around 20 percent of the building’s annual electricity consumption. The solar PV energy system is connected to the utility grid Edesur under a net metering contract. CNE is using the solar panels to help mitigate its use of electricity from traditional fossil fuel sources, such as coal, fuel oil, and diesel. The project’s main goals are to lower the headquarters’ greenhouse gas emissions and to demonstrate for others the feasibility of installing solar PV energy systems on roofs.
The solar PV system at CNE's headquarters (Source: CNE).
This project was made possible by the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americans (ECPA), which was created in 2009 in order to fund energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited Caribbean governments to join the ECPA Caribbean Partnership, which is administered by the Organization of American States (OAS) and is supported financially by the Department of State. In addition, Secretary Clinton announced that members will receive grants to improve renewable energy development. In 2010, Caribbean governments submitted over 20 proposals to the OAS for renewable energy development projects. The OAS awarded technical assistance to six projects in six countries. One of the six projects was for the construction of a solar PV energy system at the CNE headquarters. In addition to receiving assistance from the OAS, CNE received assistance from the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP), which is administered by the “German Society for International Cooperation” (GIZ) and is supported financially by the Austrian Development Agency. The total cost of the project was around US$ 130,000 with ECPA contributing US$ 65,000, CREDP contributing US$ 35,000, and CNE contributing US$ 30,000.
Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at this year’s Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF), held in Bridgetown, Barbados. The two-day conference was a uniquely productive session that brought together more than 300 participants from 37 countries, including 11 government ministers. The exceptional vigor that the conference brought to the discussion was facilitated by a format that prioritized open, free form discussion over prepared remarks. I spoke on the last panel of the conference which analyzed the progress, problems and prospects of renewable energy development in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I had the pleasure of being joined by technical specialists and representatives from both countries’ governments and the World Bank. I would especially like to highlight the contributions of our dear friend, Julián Despradel, whose work as the Coordinator of the Projects Division, in the Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency Department of the Dominican Republic, I greatly admire.
Session of the United Nations climate negotiations October 2 in Panama City. Source: International Institute for Sustainable Development
Panama is only a short hop from the Caribbean islands now home to Worldwatch Institute’s Low-Carbon Energy Roadmaps project. But, it’s a big leap from the national renewable energy strategies being developed in the Caribbean to the tense efforts just wrapping up in Panama City to agree on global climate change reduction goals.
The Panama meetings from October 1-7 marked the final preparatory negotiation before the next United Nations climate change summit convenes in Durban, South Africa from November 28-December 10. With many issues on the negotiating table, countries made surprising progress on providing funding for climate change solutions, especially in developing countries. Countries also pushed big issues like a new global climate agreement and the next stage of the Kyoto Protocol onto an already overflowing agenda for Durban.
The Dominican Republic's Climate-Compatible Development Plan
The development plan is an important document that allows the government to set the tone regarding the future of sustainability in the Dominican Republic. The CCDP details the emissions reductions that can be made in four areas of the economy by pursuing low-emissions strategies rather than a business as usual (BAU) scenario through 2030. Its long time horizon and its intent to achieve strong economic growth while simultaneously curbing emissions make it an ambitious plan that other island countries in the Caribbean can emulate. But it won’t be easy. The development plan states that success will require successful coordination of five key factors: commitments and leadership, stakeholder engagement and mobilization, effective institutions and systems, comprehensive strengthening of government capacity, and smart financing.
The CNCCMDL took pains to ensure that the development plan avoided partiality toward any one sector or political group. In order to be comprehensive and maintain the current momentum of the renewable energy sector, the council sought input from the country’s government, private sector, local and international NGOs and academia. According to Zugeilly Coss, a member of the CNCCMDL who worked closely on this project, “This plan addresses both practical and political elements with a serious perspective of sustainable development.
Far from the media spotlight, the Dominican Republic is paving its way to a cleaner energy sector. Over the past ten years, the government has published a large set of policies and laws to incentivize renewable energy production. Lifting clean-energy development to a constitutional objective, Article 67 of the Constitution of 2010 reads, “The State shall promote in the public and the private sector the use of clean alternative technologies to preserve the environment.”
Law 57-07 to incentivize the production of energy from renewable sources
A whole corpus of domestic laws recognizing the necessity to transition the energy sector to cleaner fuels has been instituted during the past decade, culminating in 2007 with the publication of Law 57-07 on Renewable Sources of Energy Incentives and its Special Regimes and its appending regulation, which sets a target of 25 percent of renewable energies in the country’s final electricity consumption by 2025. The law also aims at “opening the door” to sustained commercial financing for the renewable sector through financial incentives such as tax exemptions, a feed-in-tariff (FiT), and a national fund for renewable energies, discussed in more detail in this blog series.
Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping is playing a vital role inWorldwatch’s Low-Carbon Energy Roadmap project in the Dominican Republic. 3TIER – a company that performs renewable energy risk analysis and develops high-resolution mapping – has assisted Worldwatch by providing GIS data and maps for solar and wind resources in the Dominican Republic.
GIS mapping begins with a simple geographic map of a real-world location. Then, any number of datasets can be added to this baseline map, taking the form of additional map layers. Often, GIS maps are interactive. Users can change the amount of information they see in a map as well as zoom in and out.
The Dominican Republic ismaking strides in promoting renewable energy as a way to reduce its heavy dependence on imported fossil fuels. As part of our work collaborating with government and private stakeholders to develop low-carbon energy roadmaps for the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries, the Worldwatch Institute is conducting socioeconomic impact assessments for planned and potential renewable energy projects, focusing on solar and wind for the current stage of the analysis. The Dominican Republic has several solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power projects lined up, and the renewable resource potential to significantly expand on these investments. Examining the job creation potential of these renewable energy projects is an important first step toward understanding the full scope of benefits that renewable energy can provide, especially with high levels of unemployment in the Dominican Republic – 14.2 percent in 2010.
A worker installs solar PV rooftop panels.
Despite a rapidly growing economy (7.8 percent GDP growth in 2010), about half of the Dominican population lives below the poverty line. One reason that economic growth has failed to translate fully into widespread socioeconomic benefits is the Dominican Republic’s dependence on fossil fuel imports. The Dominican economy is highly susceptible to oil price shocks, with oil imports accounting for 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, down from 9 percent during the global price spike in 2008. Domestic renewable generation can reduce economic vulnerability due to reliance on fossil fuel imports, but can it create enough jobs to tackle the country’s unemployment and improve the standard of living?
This week the Dominican Republic began official operation of a new transmission line running between its two largest cities, Santo Domingo and Santiago. This comes on the heels of the Inter-American Develop Bank’s recent approval of two loans totaling US $78.3 million for two new wind farms in the country. These new developments complement last month’s announcement from the Comisión Nacional de Energía (CNE) introducing a new net metering regulation. All three advancements are great steps towards addressing issues of electricity stabilization and increasing consumer participation in the move towards widespread use of renewable energy.
A towering improvement for the Dominican Republic's electricity infrastructure.
The new 345 kilovolt (KV) transmission line is the first of its kind in the country. The national grid, divided among three regional operators, is composed mostly of 69 KV transmission lines with 135 KV lines in some of the more populated and tourist-oriented areas of the country. The new transmission line is supported by two substations and spans the 130 km between Santo Domingo and Santiago. It is overseen by the country’s electricity transmission company, Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica Dominicana (ETED), and came at a cost of just over USD $170 million. Officials hope that it will help alleviate unreliable electricity in the Cibao Valley region. It also helps prepare the country to handle new generation capacity soon to come online, including both wind and solar projects.
Some of that new capacity is expected to come from the two IADB-funded wind farms. In total they are expected to add 80.6 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the country’s overall capacity. The 50 MW Parques Eólicos del Caribe will be located in Guanillo, in the Monte Cristi province, and is expected to cost US $127 million. Meanwhile, Grupo Eólico Dominicano, will develop a wind farm in Baní, in the province of Peravia. The 30.6 MW project has an estimated cost of US $68.9 million.
Banco BHD, the only bank in the Dominican Republic with a credit line for renewables projects
This series of four blog pieces explores current mechanisms in place to finance renewable energies in the Dominican Republic.
Overlooking one of Dominican Republic’s beautiful black sand beaches in Palmar de Ocoa, Azua, a row of seashore villas dominates the bay. Throughout this picturesque landscape one would notice whistling wind turbines and glistening rooftop solar panels. Although the first utility-scale wind farm will be connected to the grid in August 2011 — a significant landmark in the Dominican Republic’s energy transition – the Dominican market for wind and solar energies is still largely dominated by small, off-grid installations for private homes. Wealthy Dominicans and foreign real-estate investors take advantage of the abundant solar and wind resources to power their villas with a mix of wind and solar energies technologies. Such power supply however, is an exception in the Dominican Republic, where more than 90% of electricity generation comes from imported fossil fuels.
The Turbines at Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera are Fully Assembled
Earlier this month, Worldwatch researchers visited the Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera wind farms, adjacent to each other on the border between Barahona and Pedernales provinces in the southwestern corner of the Dominican Republic. These installations, operated by power company EGE Haina, are expected to come online this August. They will represent the first utility-scale wind projects in the Dominican Republic. As with most ventures that are the first of their kind, Los Cocos and Quilvio Cabrera offer valuable lessons for future wind development in the Caribbean.
The Los Cocos wind farm consists of 14 Vestas V90 turbines, each with an installed capacity of 1.8 megawatts (MW). Quilvio Cabrera holds 5 Vestas V82 turbines, each with an installed capacity of 1.65 MW. All told, the two farms will have a combined installed capacity of 33.5 MW. Based on seven years of data collection on site, the capacity factor of the facilities is anticipated to be 33 percent, which means that they will produce an average of around 11 MW, or just under 100 Gigawatt-hours per year (not accounting for downtime due to maintenance). The Los Cocos project alone is expected to avoid the emission of 125 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over 20,000 passenger vehicles in the U.S.
