Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is a powerful source of global energy, accessible and viable, able to replace fossil fuels and other polluting sources. Since the need to develop an environmental policy was manifested, Argentina began to development and use renewable energies in order to obtain significant benefits in the environment and industry.

First of all, wind power is one of the most effective ways to reduce emissions of gasses that affect the environment and fortunately, Argentina has very good quality wind resources in different regions of the country. Therefore, this kind of renewable energy is the most developed and used in Argentina. The use of wind energy has recently had an incredible takeoff by the installation of numerous wind farms for electricity production on a large scale. This energy is used for different purposes, the most important is agricultural development. The implementation of wind power for pumping water is very common in rural areas, especially because is cheaper than use conventional electricity. Another example of the use of wind power is countryside schools. These schools have small wind power systems in order to have electricity for their activities which benefits both educational and living conditions of students and teachers. According to the development of wind power in Argentina, after the oil crisis in 1973 and 1979, it began to work actively in trying to gain experience in the use of new technologies, mainly in the research sector. Argentina has produced in the last years not only wind equipment for the country but also for other countries such Brazil and Germany. The main large-scale wind farms in Argentina are located in La Rioja and the Patagonia region.

In addition to win power there are other kinds of green energies in Argentina. Solar and geothermal energy are very important too. The use of solar energy has been growing among Argentines. For example, new houses have their own water heating equipment which use solar panels in order to reduce costs. Another example of the development and use of this energy in Argentina is the project PERMER which has the aim of supply electricity to a significant number of people living in rural household through solar energy. There are approximately 6000 public services of all kinds (schools, medical emergency rooms, police stations, etc.) that are outside the reach of the power distribution centers. Finally, a new energy that has begun to develop in Argentina is geothermal energy. At the moment efforts focus mainly on research. For example, scientists are carrying out studies in different types of terrain and designing new technology in order to obtain this energy as efficiently as possible. From the point of view if the use of this energy, the only facility that exists in the country is in Neuquén, which helps to increase the electricity power in touristic towns.