Energy & Mines chief says State should spur renewables projects

Santo Domingo.- Energy and Mines minister Antonio Isa Condeon Monday said the State should define appropriate projects to develop renewableenergy and revealed that his agency is drafting a bill to reform and boost thesector.

"There are good things, such as renewable energy, thatif you leave them half-baked they’ll create problems. We have to organizeourselves and know what kind of energy has potential and where is best to placethese projects, but you cannot give concessions at a whim," the officialsaid.

Isa said the rules governing renewable energy must be thoughtthrough to let the projects flow, because in his view, a complex permit process,in addition to stagnating them, lends itself to discretionary practices byofficials.

The official’s remarks came in response to questions by journalistsHomero Figueroa and Lorenna Pierre on the status of the talks on renewableenergy in the context of the pending Electricity Pact.

He said in future reform plan instruments should make the moreviable financing of projects seeking to generate energy from renewable sources,“because that has been a problem for their development.”