The debate around how to accelerate Colombia’s energy transition reached a turning point at the Future Energy Summit (FES) Colombia, where self-generation and distributed generation emerged as strategic pillars to diversify the country’s electricity mix.
Jan Kleyn, an executive at the Colombian Solar Energy Association (ACOSOL), warned that the country continues to underestimate the potential of small-scale solar projects, even though they represent one of the fastest pathways to expand installed capacity, reduce grid losses and strengthen system resilience.
Kleyn stressed that solar systems under 20 kW still face disproportionate administrative barriers—obstacles unrelated to technical limitations but rather to outdated procedures. Current requirements imposed by distribution system operators—detailed engineering plans, multiple certificates, inspections and sequential permits—were originally designed for large projects but are applied equally to households and small businesses.
“Small projects are penalized by regulation, not by technical feasibility,” Kleyn said, noting that targeted adjustments could enable thousands of users to adopt solar PV without facing connection processes that today can take months.
Although self-generation reduces electricity bills from the first month, most commercial banks still overlook this benefit in their risk assessments, resulting in lengthy disbursement timelines for financing.
In response, ACOSOL proposes advancing along three urgent lines of action:
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Streamlining procedures for systems under 100 kW.
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Implementing hourly electricity tariffs, enabling residential and commercial energy storage solutions.
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Creating dedicated credit lines with terms and guarantees suited to low-capacity but high-impact solar projects.
Regional experience shows that widespread solar self-consumption can be transformative. Countries such as Brazil and Chile have already integrated thousands of systems under 10 kW into their grids, helping alleviate local demand, cut technical losses and build a distributed resilience base. Colombia, however, remains behind despite having an adequate legal framework and tax incentives.
ACOSOL’s participation in FES delivered a clear message: the energy transition will not advance solely through utility-scale renewable energy projects—it will accelerate when solar PV becomes accessible for homes, warehouses and commercial consumers.
