Solar Energy in Chile by Claudio A
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www.flacsoandes.edu.ec FALL 2015 HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA ENERGY OIL, GAS AND BEYOND ENERGY EDITOR’S LETTER BY JUNE CAROLYN ERLICK Zocalo Hed 26 pt Zocalo deck 14 point one line BY HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA FALL 2015 VOLUME XV NO. 1 Oil, Gas and Beyond Published by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies I was waiting for the ship to come in. In fact, so was everyone else in Nicaragua. Gas lines VOLUME XV NO. 1 Harvard University stretched around the block. The supermarket shelves were nearly bare. Lights went out again David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and again, plunging the country into frequent darkness. Telex machines couldn’t work, and we reporters had to depend on the few places with generators to file our stories (for younger Director Brian Farrell readers, this was pre-computer and smart phones). U.S. President Ronald Reagan had imposed a trade blockade on Nicaragua in May 1985. The Soviets were sending oil, dodging Executive Director ENERGY Ned Strong the blockade. ReVista OIL, GAS AND BEYOND We reporters did what we always do: we reported on the ship’s arrival. But we also Editor-in-Chief breathed a collective sigh of relief. The arrival of the Soviet ship meant hot showers and light June Carolyn Erlick to read by. Copy Editor Energy is intensely political. It shapes nations and trade and fuels wars and blockades. FIRST TAKE Anita Safran Energy, I discovered then, is also intensely personal. It shapes our lives on a daily basis. It’s not Latin America’s Oil and Gas by Francisco J. Monaldi 2 Publication Interns only a matter of how we get around or whether we have enough food to eat; energy produc- Isabel Espinosa tion affects the communities that receive it and those that produce it. It shapes attitudes Gabriela Farrell THE POLITICS OF OIL IN EVERY ISSUE toward gender and race and nationalism and identity. It pollutes the air and the rivers. It offers Diego Lasarte Brazil’s Oil Scandal by Simon Romero 8 immense economic opportunities. Or it does both. Design Energy and Politics in Brazil by Lisa Viscidi 13 You might not think of Latin America and the Caribbean right away as a big energy Jane Simon Design Mexico’s Energy Reform by Myrna Santiago 16 BOOK TALK producer or consumer. But Venezuela stands ninth in global oil production with gas reserves Printer China in Latin America by Rebecca Ray 20 Transforming U.S.-Latin American Relations almost triple those of Canada. Three countries—Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico—account for P+R Publications by Michael Shifter 78 about 90 percent of the region’s oil production. And Latin America and the Caribbean also Contact Us THE ECONOMICS OF ENERGY Human Rights, Human Woes have the capability to provide abundant alternative and renewable energy sources: wind, solar, 1730 Cambridge Street What Powers Latin America by Ramón Espinasa and Carlos G. Sucre 24 by Daniel Gonzalez 80 geothermal and biomass, among others. Cambridge, MA 02138 The Impact of Falling Gas Prices by Luisa Palacios 28 Musical Creation and Hardship Perhaps because of my experience in Nicaragua, I started to conceive this issue in terms of Telephone: 617-495-5428 Peruvian Oil Production by Eleodoro Mayorga Alba 32 by Pedro Reina-Pérez 82 meta-politics. And there is certainly a lot of politics related to energy in the region: the politi- Subscriptions, Back Copies and Comments cal upheaval of Brazil as a result of corruption scandals in the national oil company; the turmoil [email protected] ALTERNATIVE ENERGY BUILDING BRIDGES in oil-rich Venezuela; the impact of the semi-privatization of Mexico’s oil industry; the targeting Website Wind Energy in Latin America by Carlos Rufín 36 Building Bridges with Cuban Libraries of Colombia’s energy installations by guerrilla forces in a show of strength in the context of the revista.drclas.harvard.edu The Power of the Brazilian Wind by Mauricio B. C. Salles 38 by Lynn M. Shirey 84 ongoing peace process. Facebook Solar Energy in Chile by Claudio A. Agostini But then I thought back on how the arrival of oil had been experienced on a very local and ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America Carlos Silva and Shahriyar Nasirov 40 personal level. I began to hear stories about the production of energy: what it felt like to grow Copyright © 2015 by the President and Geothermal Energy in Central America by Jacques E. C. Hymans 42 ONLINE up in an oil camp, how energy production affects indigenous women in one particular region, Fellows of Harvard College. Look for more content online at ISSN 1541—1443 how local communities involve themselves in deciding what is done with oil. LIVING WITH OIL revista.drclas.harvard.edu ReVista is printed on recycled stock. And just recently Alvaro Jiménez, Nieman Affiliate at Harvard ‘09, happened to mention to Life in a Venezuelan Oil Camp by Miguel Tinker Salas 46 me that he was starting a website “Crudo Transparente,” a site that monitors the Colombian Behind the Corporate Veil by Kody Jackson 50 oil industry. Out of curiosity—and as a quick break from proofreading this issue—I took a peek. Añelo and Vaca Muerta by Mariana Barrera 52 The site focuses on five areas: local economy, contracts and royalties, environment, security This issue of ReVista is made possible and human rights and ethnic conflicts. I was pleased to see how much overlap there was with through generous support of FOCUS ON THE AMAZONS ON THE COVER the themes I had chosen for this issue of ReVista. Santander Universities Global Division. Beyond Dinosaurs and Oil Spills by Theodore Macdonald 56 Petrobras Oil Platform Although the website deals with only one country—Colombia—it felt like an affirmation Forests for Energy? by Juan Luis Dammert B. 62 Photo By Ricardo Stuckert/PR of the focus I had chosen for this wide-ranging topic. Energy is political. Energy is personal. Oil and Indigenous Communities by Barbara Fraser 66 (Agência Brasil [1]) [CC BY 3.0 Energy matters. In the Shadows of the Extractive Industry by Nelly Luna Amancio 70 br (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed. PREVIOUS REVISTA ARTICLES ON ENERGY 7 7 en)], via Wikimedia Commons 2 ReVista FALL 2015 REVISTA.DRCLAS.HARVARD.EDU ReVista 1 ENERGY ATLERNATIVE ENERGY Beyond Brazil, the integration of renewable energy capacity that should be renewable energy into the electric grid Solar Energy in Chile added to the current energy matrix in the is facing many challenges. Germany sets next 10 years to reach the target is much a good example of high penetration of Development and Challenges higher than the average annual renew- renewable energy. In order to cope with able capacity that entered the matrix the pre-defined levels of reliability, other BY CLAUDIO A. AGOSTINI, CARLOS SILVA AND SHAHRIYAR NASIROV during the last five years. Additionally, to sources of energy must be connected to reach the renewable energy target of 20% the grid, ready to begin generating elec- by 2025, electricity grids will have to be tricity in case of a sudden lack of wind. In upgraded and expanded. the case of Germany, the backup source FOR SEVERAL DECADES, CHILE HAS STRUGGLED compensate for these changes and have Investors in renewable energies in of energy is gas or coal. One of the best to have a stable and reliable mix of en- another alternative to Argentine gas. Chile also face significant challenges. alternatives to increase the penetration ergy sources to satisfy its growing needs. The successive energy crises have Although the Chilean government has of renewable is probably energy storage In the 1980s, the country relied heavily taught us a valuable lesson. The coun- shown interest in promoting the devel- systems, but those are still very expensive on hydroelectricity, considered almost try is now more concerned with ener- opment of RES, a number of obstacles and the most promising technologies are the sole solution to its growing energy gy diversification, understanding its remain, resulting in a moratorium on only in the infancy stage of development requirements. As a result, every time important role for the security of the several projects. Most of these projects for large amounts of energy. My research the country faced a drought, there were system. The country has learned that are wind and solar technologies, with as a visiting scholar at Harvard Universi- even periods of blackouts and rationing short-term gains come at a high long- only around 10% in terms of capacity ty is about advanced energy storage sys- because not enough energy was being term cost. In addition, the economy’s realized thus far, despite having environ- tems that might allow more renewable produced. dynamism over the last decades, includ- mental approval. energies in power systems. In the mid-1990s, a combination ing the significant improvement in the The most important barriers that What is going to be unique in Brazil of continued rapid growth in energy welfare of the population (poverty, for renewable energy projects face in Chile and will be even more interesting than demand, increasing environmental con- example, has decreased from 40% to are the high cost of the initial investment, the seasonal complementarity (between cerns regarding large hydro projects, 13% in two decades), has doubled elec- The Chilean group met with NREL researchers in Denver, Sandia in Albuquerque and the Uni- limited access to financing, opposition hydro and wind) is the fact that we could and the unreliability of hydropower tricity demand. Chile is now the country versity of Arizona in Tucson and explored the latest technological developments.