Accelerating Colombia's Energy Transition Through Workforce Empowerment (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video Accelerating Colombia's Energy Transition Through Workforce Empowerment.

Announcer: Colombia is making historic strides toward clean energy. With its ambitious renewable targets and a growing share of wind and solar resources, Colombia is designing a future power system that is fundamentally different from today's, one that uses new technologies, that embraces new sectors, and that creates new opportunities to enhance energy security, affordability, sustainability, and reliability.

Diego Mesa Puyo, Minister of Mines and Energy, Colombia: What we've estimated is that, by the end of 2022, we'll have close to 2,800 MW of solar capacity presently being built as we go along. And the main message here is that we were able, in just 4 years, to turn the power matrix in Colombia from having less than 1% of variable renewable to close to 13%.

Announcer: To stay ahead of a changing world, Colombia is training tomorrow's energy sector leaders, who are poised to usher in an advanced energy system that is affordable and equitable and that sets a model for bold energy transition. With support from the United States Agency for International Development, Colombia trained a cohort of young professionals to manage and modernize Colombia's changing power grid. The workforce development program focused on combining diverse industries and individuals to advance Colombia's renewable energy goals. With an emphasis on the inclusion of women, the cohort of future leaders learned about the latest high-impact topics for reaching Colombia's renewable objectives.

Giovana Cano, Chief of Planning and Regulation, Empresa de Energía de Boyacá S.A. ESP: As an early-career professional and as a woman, because of what I learned in this training, I feel poised and ready to help usher in a new clean energy future for Colombia.

Announcer: The USAID-funded program not only provided training to a new generation of energy leaders but also put in motion a sequence of renewable energy advancements whose impact will scale with Colombia's progress toward a sustainable and equitable energy future.

Thomas Black, Renewable Energy Leader, USAID Colombia Mission: With these young leaders aboard, understanding the challenges, preparing their action plans, leading their companies and their firms and their offices forward, we think we're making a major contribution to the successful integration and operation of variable renewables throughout the system.

[Text on screen: Integracion Eficiente de Energias Renovables Variables al Sistema Colombiano]
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