Petro asks Ecopetrol to accelerate the transition to clean energy

President Gustavo Petro asked Ecopetrol to accelerate the pace to achieve the production of clean energy and green hydrogen, taking full advantage of the potential that the country has in this area.

“We could produce green hydrogen and be exporters, why don’t we do it? What’s wrong with Ecopetrol that is anchored in the fossil economy and is not taking quick steps towards a clean economy?” questioned the head of state.

Petro was in Cartagena de Indias today during the delivery of the Solar Ecopark of the Cartagena Refinery, which has a self-generation capacity of up to 22.1 megawatts of renewable energy, equivalent to the energy consumption of 18,200 homes in Colombia.

It is the only solar farm built inside a refinery in Latin America and the first solar project executed by Ecopetrol.

The Ecopark contributes to the reduction of emissions from the Cartagena refinery by nearly 21,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to stopping 5.2 million cars from circulating in Bogotá for 3 days.

This Friday, Petro emphasized his request to the newly appointed board of directors of Ecopetrol, which he told to “change the chip” and go from fossil energies to clean energies.

This change, he said, has to do with the responsibility towards humanity of producing green hydrogen, in addition to the potential of areas like La Guajira, where there is salt, wind and sun, which could allow Colombia to export to face the climate crisis. global.

In that direction, he advocated lifting the measures that prevent Ecopetrol from operating in La Guajira: “The Portuguese, the Italians, the Chinese get involved (…) and Ecopetrol cannot generate clean energy in a relatively easy industry: take the seawater and generate green hydrogen”.

He stressed that Ecopetrol’s efforts to produce blue and gray hydrogen are not enough and that it must move towards green hydrogen, “which has neither oil, nor coal, nor gas, but water and electricity with clean energy.”

“We have a new geopolitical role in the world, this is where we can get clean energy that they need there, to decarbonize, in the north,” he said.