As the leading institution responsible for the formulation and implementation of the energy transition by the Government of El Salvador, the head of the Dirección General de Energía, Hidrocarburos y Minas (DGEHM), Daniel Alvarez, signed with the director general of the Agencia Internacional de Energías Renovables (IRENA) Francesco La Camera, a cooperation agreement on renewable energy exchanges, which will consolidate the country’s leadership in clean energy and promote their knowledge for the energy transition.
The strategic alliance between IRENA and El Salvador contemplates the development of geothermal energy, focused on attracting investment in power generation and direct uses of heat, also creates the roadmap to promote policies and regulations for the production and use of green hydrogen, including good practices for its implementation.
“The agreement also allows the country to access both technical and financial cooperation to promote more renewable energy projects that will reduce the cost of energy in El Salvador”, said Daniel Alvarez, general director of the DGEHM, during the signing of the cooperation agreement.
Among the projects to be addressed are decarbonization in the transport, industry and building sectors, through electrification, renewable heat, distributed generation, among others. El Salvador and IRENA will explore cooperation to support the country in achieving its national objectives in this field.
Regarding energy planning activities, the agreement contemplates that IRENA will support our country through the promotion of knowledge sharing and the improvement of institutional planning capacities to overcome the challenges of the energy transition, including the evolution of energy demand patterns and technological advances in the sector.
El Salvador, as a member of IRENA, has a strong history of cooperation with the agency since 2019, when President Bukele takes office through the DGEHM, as the national authority responsible for the development of energy resources.
Thanks to IRENA’s support, El Salvador in 2022 hosted the High Level Meeting of the Global Geothermal Alliance that brought together more than 25 geothermal countries; also, El Salvador was president of IRENA’s Twelfth General Assembly in the United Arab Emirates in 2022.
In january 2023, the first training on green hydrogen development was held in the country, thanks to IRENA. El Salvador is taking advantage of the benefits of green hydrogen in many sectors such as mobility for all types of transportation, in industry and for renewable energy storage.
Green hydrogen will reduce our dependence on polluting fuels and will allow us to diversify energy sources, as well as help us to electrify sectors such as transportation and industry, contributing to cleaner air for all.
As part of his Latin American tour, IRENA’s General Director, Francesco La Camera, will hold important meetings with Salvadoran authorities of the energy sector to learn about the functioning of the national electricity market and the impulse that El Salvador has given to the diversification of the energy matrix based on the stabilization of energy prices, a fact that has benefited the great majority of the population.
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