CHAPTER TEN - Process for rural energy development – Colombia

Abstract

This chapter discusses the process for rural energy development in Colombia. The population of the rural sector in Colombia lives under widely differing physical, economic, and social conditions, but in practically all the cases, energy supply strongly affects economic status and welfare. Energy is usually quite expensive and inaccessible to lower income groups. Attempts to solve rural energy problems have met serious roadblocks, from very high costs to great inefficiency owing to lack of adaptation between the offered solutions and the real needs. These needs are not directly energy-related but basic—welfare, health, production facilities, and the possibility of changing production forms. These problems have naturally affected rural electrification plans, which have had financing problems and have shown rather unsatisfactory results. It must be noted that economic policy decisions must frequently be disaggregated and regional and that methodologies would definitely work on a disaggregated basis. The areas of interest are the populated zones and within them the distant zones, where the problems are more acute and where the consideration of nonintegrated micro-centrals, renewable sources, is necessary.