The Colombian government has unveiled draft rules for the introduction of a new support scheme for the roll-out of domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in poorer and grid-isolated municipalities. Interested parties may comment the proposal, which is meant to offset operational and maintenance costs of small-scale PV projects across non-interconnected zones. Subsidies reflecting household income levels, estimated power generation (in kWh) and reference tariffs based on residents location will be offered to offgrid PV installations. The level of the subsidies is not specified so far but Colombia’s energy planning agency UPME will determine “subsistence” power use levels to be covered by those subsidies.
The subsidy scheme comes at a time when Colombia is pushing for the development of a domestic renewable energy capacity base. Earlier in 2019, the country launched a reliability charge auction, which will eventually enable the inclusion of wind and solar projects in the domestic reliability matrix.