July 25, 2024

 

A new report reveals that for the first time in the last decade, the gap in basic energy access has increased, jeopardizing the United Nations’ goal of ensuring that everyone has access to this resource by 2030.

Ending poverty, reducing inequality, and building more peaceful and prosperous societies. This is the overarching goal pursued by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) in 2015. The seventh of these goals states that by 2030, all people should have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy.

Everything seemed to indicate progress toward that goal until 2022. According to a recent report prepared by the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the United Nations Statistics Division, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, which analyzes the state of global electricity access, for the first time in the last decade, there has been a setback in meeting the goal. That year, the number of people worldwide without this essential resource increased by 10 million compared to 2021, reaching 685 million inhabitants. Of that total living without electricity today, 80%—more than 570 million people—reside in rural areas, with the majority concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite all possible measures, by the 2030 deadline, more than 660 million people worldwide will still lack access to electricity.

Challenge in Rural Areas

Although in Latin America, “the main economies have already achieved universal access to electricity, globally speaking, Peru still has 4% of its population without this supply. When looking solely at the rural population, other countries such as Brazil and Bolivia are also included,” warns Daniel Olivares, director of the Center for Energy Transition (Centra) at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and associate researcher at SERC Chile.

And while in Chile, there are still households without access to electricity, they represent less than 0.5% of the population; thus, in practical terms, the country achieved universal access to electricity in the mid-2000s,” adds Olivares. Several areas that previously had problems are now connected to the National Electric System (SEN), such as Chiloé and its main cities.

However, according to the director of Centra, data from the Ministry of Energy indicates there are about 130 isolated systems, meaning electrical systems with a capacity of less than 1.5 MW that supply small, geographically remote populations, generally corresponding to diesel-powered plants with high supply costs.

Climate Problems

Despite Chile’s universal access, some areas experience more frequent power outages during certain times of the year. Marcelo Mena, a professor at P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, explains that these problems are mainly due to climate-related events, such as this winter’s heavy rains impacting above-ground infrastructure. While more resilient methods, such as underground cabling, could be considered, the high investment cost must be weighed against productivity losses caused by outages.

On an urban level, Mena comments, the growth of the electric vehicle fleet will offer new possibilities: the unused energy stored in batteries could be integrated into the system, requiring infrastructure adaptations. Nationally, one pending issue is better utilizing renewable energy production, as unused energy is simply lost. This necessitates evaluating investments in better transmission systems—such as in the north—that allow efficient integration and distribution of energy, concludes Mena.

Courtesy of El Mercurio.