Of the 65 wind farms planned for Colombia’s La Guajira department, Guajira 1, inaugurated in 2022, is one of only two that have been completed. (Photo courtesy of Indepaz)
In 2015, the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy identified the northeastern department of La Guajira as the region best able to lead the country’s energy transition, thanks to winds there that average nine meters per second. At the time, La Guajira had just one wind farm—Jepirachi, a 19.5-megawatt, 15-turbine built in 2004. But it was a harbinger of torrid wind-power investment to come little more than a decade later. In the period 2015-2022, some 100 wind-energy projects were planned in Colombia. Of these, 65 were slated for the department, located on the Caribbean La Guajira peninsula Colombia shares with Venezuela. In 2022, when then-President Iván Duque inaugurated the department’s—and the country’s—second wind farm, called Guajira 1, it appeared the country’s wind-energy industry was poised to take off. “An energy revolution is occurring in Colombia in the midst of a pandemic... [Log in to read more]
