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President Alberto Fernandez stated that “we are making it possible for Argentina has renewable energy made in Argentina by Argentines, and that is called sovereignty, although it bothers some”, when leading this Tuesday afternoon in San Juan the launch of the National Renewable Cluster, a public-private body that seeks to promote the production of goods, technologies and services associated with renewable energy sources.
Fernandez ratified that the “Argentina has a commitment to climate change“, to see “how we face the consequences of climate change and so that it stops happening”, because “nothing that happens in terms of environmental pollution is free, everything has a cost”.
In reference to what happened in the previous days in terms of heat, he warned that “the highest temperatures in many decades” recorded in the country were due to “a world that stopped addressing the problem of global warming and sought to solve it almost to the limit of when the problem explodes” and emphasized that “it cannot be changed from one day to the next”.
“Neither can we change by neglecting the environment in which we live,” said the head of state, and clarified that “it is not a discussion between environmentalists and people who promote mining, because mining is necessary to live in the conditions in which we live.” . He exemplified that “six times more copper is needed for electromobility and we need to deepen mining, preserving the environment and respecting the social agreement in those places where mining production takes place.”
In that sense, Fernández stressed the need to “end carbon emissions, methane and those gases that produce the greenhouse effect and increase the heat of the earth”. The President highlighted the idea of ”going replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy“, where the solar and the wind “they are central”, and he advocated “making renewable energies be produced in Argentina”.
Fernandez highlighted the importance of generating “Argentine renewable energy made by Argentines,” and emphasized that “although the word bothers some, that is called sovereignty,” that is, “not having to depend on another to have what is needed.”
“This is the path for Argentina to have the energy it needs, but I am more certain that this is the path for future generations not to accuse us of having destroyed the house in which we live,” he concluded.
For his part, the Minister of Productive Development, Matias Kulfas, noted that the project “will generate 2,250 jobs direct and more than 4,000 indirect, with an investment close to 1,000 million dollars, substituting imports, more work and production for a productive chain of nearly 250 SMEs throughout the country”.
Kulfas recalled that “the Renovar Plan, in the previous government, was dependent on external financing and imported equipment, and without external financing, back in April 2018, the program ran out of fuel and many projects were cut short.” According to the minister, “mining is key in the ecological transition to take advantage of the different minerals that serve to produce clean energy” and referred that “this renewable cluster is very important for the development of a green productive Argentina”.
In his turn, the governor of San Juan Sergio Unac, declared himself in favor of “the diversification of the productive matrix” and considered that “it is an obligation to be able to develop it”, and recalled that in that province “the development of mining was a very significant fact”, where “the activity economy and care for the environment. For Uñac, “redesigning a new energy matrix is a joint challenge”, and he pointed out: “This cluster is proof that we can do it together”, in addition to fighting for a federal project to which “more provinces will be added” for the “national energy generation, which is what we all aim at.”
At the beginning of the act, the manager of Engineering and Development of the state-owned company Energía Provincial Sociedad del Estado (Epse), Víctor Doña, described the launch as a “historical milestone” and highlighted that this program “was born from the synergy of six provinces that they created strategies to develop renewable energies, the manufacture of some components and the generation of parks”, in addition to highlighting that in that area “there is very good quality of solar and wind energy”.
The delegation that accompanied the head of state in San Juan was also made up of the ministers of economy, Martin Guzman; for interior, Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro; and Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandie. The Secretaries of Energy, Darío Martínez; of Industry, Knowledge Economy and External Commercial Management, Ariel shell; and mining, Fernanda Avila, and the owner of Banco Nación, Eduardo Hecker.
The act took place in the Civic Center of the city of San Juan and in addition to the local governor, the leaders of Río Negro, Arabela Carreras; from Catamarca, Raúl Jalil; and from La Rioja, Ricardo Quintela; and the lieutenant governor of Mendoza; Mario Abed. Governor of Neuquen Omar Gutierrez; affected by Covid-19, participated via videoconference.
The National Renewable Cluster is a transversal effort of the provinces of San Juan, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Rioja, Catamarca and Río Negro and of the business chambers of the sector to create a robust productive and technological framework with the aim of complying with Law 27,191, enacted and enacted in 2015, which sets, among other goals, the coverage of 20 percent of the electricity matrix through renewable sources in 2025.