Bureaucracy Stops Progress of Renewable Energy

If you want to provide solar power to a house in Guatemala, you have to go through the same procedures as those undertaken for the implementation of a major power project.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

According to Fabio Gudiel, vice president of Energy at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), the Law on Incentives for the Development of Renewable Energy Projects must be adjusted in order to meet its goal, as it has been deemed that the rules lack efficiency in the processes for authorizing such projects.

Gudiel explained that legislation enacted in 2003 is rigid and needs to be modernized. He also reported that the MEM has begun a process aiming to speed up the proceedings, and as a first step it has designed electronic forms so as to streamline the process of receiving applications for projects.

Meanwhile, Claus Schieber, an entrepreneur from the solar energy sector, believes that the law favors foreign firms over domestic ones because it does not give them the benefit of the tax exemption on imports.

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