LatinNews Daily - 21 February 2020

* Colombia’s state-owned oil company Ecopetrol has announced plans to construct a 50MW solar park which will be owned by its Cenit hydrocarbon transportation and logistics subsidiary. Ecopetrol said the park which will be built across 46 hectares and feature more than 100,000 panels in Castilla La Nueva municipality, Meta department, will be the largest self-consumption power plant developed in the country, more than twice the size of the 21MW Parque Solar Castilla, which was inaugurated in October 2019. It will supply energy over the next 15 years to the San Fernando and Apiay pumping stations as well as oil fields in Castilla, Chichimene and Acacías in the Eastern Plains (Orinoquía region). Construction will begin in the first half of this year on the new park which is expected to begin commercial operations in December. Ecopetrol plans to construct at least five additional solar parks in the departments of Meta, Santander, Huila, and Antioquia over the next two years.