The Dominican Republic needs 5.4 billion dollars of investment in renewables to meet the 2030 goal

This CNE release was published using machine translation.

Santo Domingo, May 21, 2024 – Private investments in renewable energy projects will be essential to achieve the national energy goals established for the year 2030.

This was stated by the executive director of the National Energy Commission (CNE), Edward Veras, during his participation this Tuesday in the panel “Opportunities and Challenges in the Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of the Dominican Republic”, within the framework of the Energy Summit event. 2024 organized by Mercado Magazine.

“When we add the energy produced in the main system and distributed generation, we see that we have reached between 16 and 17% renewable energy, and the goal of 25% is possible by 2025 with the number of projects under construction” Veras commented.

However, he emphasized that meeting the next objective is a challenge because greater resilience is required in the system and battery storage is needed.

"To achieve 30% in 2030 and in that sense, one of the scenarios that will be proposed in the next edition of the National Energy Plan is that 5.4 billion dollars in investment are needed."

He recalled the Government's continuous effort to structure a strategy that allows the expansion of the use of natural gas and the high integration of renewable energies, as established in the 2022 Energy Plan. “The first measure of this management was to resume comprehensive planning.” Veras indicated, recognizing that this has outlined a favorable environment for investors.

“Without planning it will not be possible to raise that money in the capital market,” he added, inviting all actors in the sector to work together to ensure a sustainable and prosperous energy future.

He assured that public policy will allow the existing legal regime to remain over time so that investments have the reliability they need.

On the other hand, he pointed out that technological innovation and advances in research will also be crucial to support the energy transition and improve efficiency in the use of renewable resources.

Also on the panel were Andrés Astacio, Superintendent and President of the SIE Council; Yamily López, General Manager of REFIDOMSA; Martín Robles, General Administrator of ETED and as moderator, Manuel Cabral, executive vice president of ADIE.

About the event

The ENERGY MARKET SUMMIT 2024: Powering Progress “Acceleration of the Energy Transition (ETA)”, was held at the Intercontinental Hotel, with the participation of key actors from the public and private sectors.

Among the special guests were the Minister of the Presidency, Joel Santos, and the Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, who was in charge of the welcoming remarks.

The event focused on topics such as renewable energies, energy efficiency, emerging technologies and environmental sustainability, and offered a space to propose innovative strategies that accelerate the energy transition and position the Dominican Republic as a regional benchmark in resilience and energy diversification.