Caribbean & Central America - September 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Energy: Also crucial to Ortega’s aims of making Nicaragua more attractive to foreign investors (and a declared campaign priority), is improving access to energy. Claiming that the Ortega government had electrified 67% of the country, up from 53% at the end of the mandate of Ortega’s predecessor, President Enrique Bolaños (2002-2007), Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli recently told the media that the government plans to increase this to 87% by 2015 through the US$400m national sustainable electrification and renewable energy programme (PNESER). A further priority for the government is reducing dependence on oil imports (which currently account for 67% of energy production) in favour of renewable sources. Last month the local renewable energy company, Blue Power, signed loan agreements with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Bank of Costa Rica (Bicsa), and the Miami-based Grupo Lafise for US$80m for a wind farm project, budgeted at US$115.3m which is expected to contribute an additional 39.6MW. This follows the approval last year of the country’s largest hydroelectric project, the US$1.15bn Tumarín dam, to be undertaken by Brazil’s Queiroz Galvão, with an eventual capacity of 220MW (41% of Nicaragua’s total demand in 2009) [RC-10-09].

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