Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2005 Antalya, Turkey, 24-29 April 2005 Geothermal Country Update for Ecuador, 2000-2005 Bernardo Beate, Rodney Salgado Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Dept de Recursos Minerales, PO Box 17-01-2759, Quito/Ecuador
[email protected] Keywords: Ecuador, geothermal exploration, heat source, The energy market is dominated by Hydro (50.6 %) and hot springs of Ecuador, assessment of geothermal prospects, Fossil Fuel (49.4 %) generation, with a total installed use of geothermal energy. capacity of 3451 Mwe, yielding a gross electricity production of 12357 GWh/yr (as of Dec 2002). ABSTRACT Production from renewable energy sources in Ecuador, Due mainly to its favorable geodynamic setting along the including geothermal, solar and wind, is still neglegible, but active convergent plate margin of Southamerica, is planned to increase in the future. The Tufiño-Chiles characterized by a broad continental volcanic arc with geothermal prospect owns the especial status of Bi-National numerous active volcanoes and intense seismicity, and to Project, due to its location on the Ecuador-Colombia border. the elevated oil prices of the time, Ecuador started the This and several other high and low-medium temperature exploration of its geothermal resources about 30 years ago, geothermal prospects in Ecuador await state and private aiming on high enthalpy prospects, suitable for electricity investment to be developed in order to lessen the production. dependence on fossil fuel use. Finally, in Ecuador, geothermal energy is challenged to be cost-efficient in front Exploration for geothermal resources was carried out from of an abundant hydro resource, as well as to be the mid 1970´s through the early 1990´s by ecuadorean environmentally safe.