Ecopetrol’s El Niño Plan Runs on Gas and Fuel Oil, Not Solar
Energy
Key Facts
—The headline. Four solar projects give Ecopetrol 234 MW of renewable capacity.
—The fleet. Ecopetrol generates 1,863 MW for its own use, and 1,548 MW of that comes from burning gas or fuel oil.
—The ratio. Renewables are 16.9% of the company’s own backup power.
—The target. Ecopetrol wants 900 MW of that own-use power to be renewable. It has 315 MW.
—The surprise. It hit its 2030 energy-saving target in early 2026, four years early.
—The warning. Generators’ association Acolgen says Colombia enters this drought with less capacity.
The Ecopetrol El Niño plan has been reported as a renewables story built on four solar farms. Those farms supply about an eighth of the electricity the company generates for itself.
The rest comes from burning gas and liquid fuel. That is not a criticism so much as the point.
What the Ecopetrol El Niño plan is actually made of
Colombia’s weather institute expects a severe drought in the second half of the year. The state oil company answered with a plan covering energy savings, water, fire control and power.
On the power side it names four solar projects. La Cira, La Iguana, Quifa and Portón del Sol together contribute 234 MW.
Set that against the company’s full own-power fleet of 1,863 MW. Thermal plants account for 1,548 of them.
Thermal power is thus more than four fifths of the fleet. The share held by wind and sun is the remainder.
Renewables are therefore under 17% of the power Ecopetrol makes for itself. The four headline projects are barely an eighth.
An oil company insures against drought by burning more gas
The logic is sound and worth stating plainly. When the reservoirs empty, hydro output collapses and thermal plants must fill the gap.
Solar panels do not help at night and cannot be switched on at will. A drought is precisely the moment a firm, controllable megawatt earns its keep.
So the company cutting carbon is also the company keeping 1,500 MW of combustion on standby. Its refineries will ship diesel and fuel oil to thermal plants if the grid tightens further.
Ecopetrol is likewise expanding gas imports through terminals at Buenaventura and Puerto Bahía. Published figures for the latter vary widely, and this newspaper will not settle them here.
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The number nobody put in a headline
Buried in the same news is a striking figure. Ecopetrol set itself a target of saving 25 petajoules of energy by 2030. It reached that in the first quarter of this year.
The saving since 2018 stands slightly above that mark. It equals the yearly power use of roughly 3.7 million Colombian homes.
Four years early, on a target the company chose itself. For 2026 it plans a further 3.14 petajoules, about 870 million kilowatt hours.
Part of that is a straight cut in power use across its sites, worth some 375 gigawatt hours a year. Enough to run 250,000 homes.
Savings, not new plants, do the heavy lifting. The cheapest megawatt in a drought is the one nobody needs.
How far the solar push really has to go
Ecopetrol’s stated goal is 900 MW of renewable own-power. At 315 MW it has covered about a third of the distance.
The assets themselves are real enough. The government’s own announcement of the La Cira Infantas farm records 56 MW across 84,900 panels on 53 hectares, for just under $50 million.
Divide those figures and the cost lands near $900 a kilowatt. That is competitive by any world standard.
La Cira and Quifa alone make up nearly half the 234 MW being advertised. The other two projects are small.
What a foreign investor should take from this
Acolgen, the body for the country’s power firms, warns that Colombia faces this drought with less capacity than the last one. That is the sentence to weigh against every megawatt announced.
Ecopetrol supplies the single largest share of Colombia’s state revenue through taxes, dividends and royalties. Its energy bill and its fuel sales both move with the weather.
A company hedging a drought with thermal power while its country’s gas reserves fall is the national problem in miniature. The panels are genuine and the arithmetic is unforgiving.
Read the plan as insurance rather than transition. The transition is the four-year-early efficiency target, and almost nobody reported it.
What is in the Ecopetrol El Niño plan?
Energy savings, own power, water, fire control and gas supply, ahead of a drought forecast for the second half of 2026.
How much of Ecopetrol’s power is renewable?
About 315 MW of 1,863, or under 17%. The rest is thermal generation.
Why does a drought threaten Colombia’s power?
The country leans heavily on hydro power. When reservoirs fall, gas and liquid fuels must cover the shortfall, and domestic gas is in decline.
More: Colombia news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of Ecopetrol's self-generated power currently comes from renewable sources?
Renewables are 16.9% of Ecopetrol's own power. The company has 315 MW of green capacity today. The company's four solar projects — La Cira, La Iguana, Quifa, and Portón del Sol — together contribute 234 MW of that renewable capacity.
What is Ecopetrol's renewable energy target and how close is it to reaching it?
Ecopetrol wants 900 MW of its own-use power to come from renewable sources. It currently has 315 MW, meaning it still has a significant gap to close before reaching that goal.
What energy milestone did Ecopetrol reach ahead of schedule?
Ecopetrol hit its 2030 energy-saving target in early 2026, four years early. This came as Colombia's weather institute expects a severe drought in the second half of the year, putting additional pressure on the country's power supply.
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