Clean energy seminar held in Nicaragua

Clean energy seminar held in connection with State Secretary Håkon A. Gulbrandsen’s visit to Nicaragua, 22–23 January 2009

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to say how pleased I am to have the honour of opening this seminar on clean energy, at which both the public and the private sectors in Nicaragua and Norway are represented.

The background to this seminar is that we hope to initiate a dialogue with Nicaragua to identify opportunities for increased cooperation between our two countries in the energy sector. Judging by the participants here today, I feel confident that we have gathered the right people, both from the public and the private sector, to launch such a dialogue.

The reason why we want to put clean energy on the agenda is that through a hundred years, Norway has developed extensive expertise in the field of hydropower development. In recent years we have also gained extensive experience of solar and wind power. Nicaragua, on the other hand, has great potential for developing more hydro, solar and wind power. I believe this provides a good basis for future cooperation.

We know that 1.5 billion people around the world are without access to modern forms of energy. We also know that lack of access to energy is a key hinder to economic and social development. Access to energy is a key to the fulfilment of the United Nations Millenium Goals when it comes to the goals on areas like education, health and water.

First a few words about Norway as an energy nation. A hundred years ago, Norway was a very poor country. It was also about a hundred years ago that people became aware of the hydroelectric potential of Norway’s many rivers and waterfalls. By developing our hydropower resources, we were able to provide energy for industrial development and electricity to light and heat our homes. This laid the basis for Norway’s economic transformation into the rich country it has become. One important characteristic is that everyone could take part in the development of the modern welfare state.

Today 99% of the electricity we consume is hydroelectric, and Norway is the world’s 6th largest producer of hydropower.

But the development of our hydropower resources has not only led to prosperity. It has also given us knowledge, expertise and experience in this field. We have companies and institutions that know a lot about planning, building and operating hydroelectric plants efficiently.

We have developed open and transparent decision-making processes that ensure that all involved groups can participate and have influence. This guarantees that the processes are inclusive and transparent, and that environmental and social considerations are taken into account and mitigating measures identified before decisions are made.

We have developed close cooperation between the various actors who are involved in producing and selling electricity to the consumers, thereby ensuring optimal capacity utilisation. We also buy and sell electricity to our neighbouring countries, and this result in better overall capacity utilisation and lower prices for end consumers.

The expertise and experience I have talked about is found in industry, among consultants, in education and research institutions and in public administration. My delegation includes representatives from these areas, and they will explain more about their roles and experiences in their own presentations. I hope this will give you a basis for assessing whether there are any areas that could be suitable for future cooperation between Nicaragua and Norway.

One of the institutions we have established in Norway with a view to sharing our expertise on hydropower with other countries is the International Centre for Hydropower. The centre’s first course on hydropower in this region was held in Guatemala last autumn. It attracted a large number of participants, and I understand that they were very satisfied with the course. ICH plans a second course this autumn.

Now that Norway has developed most of the hydropower resources that can justifiably be exploited, based on environmental considerations, we see that a number of Norwegian companies are interested in investing in hydropower development abroad. Some of these companies are represented in my delegation. I hope you take the opportunity to make contact with them and explore ideas for possible future cooperation on building and operating hydroelectric and wind power plants in Nicaragua.

I hope to facilitate cooperation between these companies and local companies and I believe that such collaboration would help to strengthen future cooperation between our two countries, in addition to creating economic growth and development in Nicaragua.

It is often necessary to provide some development assistance funds in order to trigger private investment, and green funding, such as the Clean Development Mechanism can also play an important role. Norway is therefore very interested in further development of the Clean Development Mechanism as part of a future global climate regime.

I believe that development of clean energy resources like hydro and solar is a good area for promotion of foreign investments and cooperation. In light of the international finance crises it is even more important to promote investments in infrastructure and in particular in energy in developing countries.

The world is facing a serious threat with the climatic changes that takes place. Greenhouse gas emissions are causing dramatic climate change. The rapid increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere is the result of our enormous consumption of fossil fuels to generate energy. One important way of preventing further increases in CO2 emissions is to make use of the vast potential for developing renewable energy based on hydro, solar and wind power. Norway wants to cooperate with other countries so that more sources of renewable energy are developed and put to use.

I have already mentioned Norwegian expertise on renewable energy and hydropower. In addition to hydropower Norway has over the last couple of decades also developed a significant production of solar cells. Solar power is therefore also part of the menu for possible future cooperation.

As I said, we want to share our experience and cooperate with other countries in this field. As part of our development cooperation, we have therefore established the Clean Energy for Development initiative. The overall goal for the initiative is to contribute to increased access to energy as a driver for social and economic development.

This initiative provides the framework for our cooperation with other countries and sharing of experiences, and includes elements such as capacity building and energy planning. The initiative also mobilizes and cooperates with the private sector on developing clean energy, hydro, solar and wind. We will make use of development cooperation to promote such public private partnership.

To conclude, I wish you every success with this important seminar, and hope it will pave the way for close future cooperation on clean energy between Nicaragua and Norway. And maybe you can identify some low hanging fruits that soon can constitute successful examples of investments in energy projects in public private partnership.

Thank you!