Ecopetrol’s Drought 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 meteorological institute expects a high-intensity drought in the second half of the year. The state oil company has responded with a plan covering efficiency, water management, fire prevention and power.
On the power side it names four solar projects. La Cira, La Iguana, Quifa and Portón del Sol together contribute two hundred and thirty-four megawatts.
Set that against the company’s full self-generation fleet of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three megawatts. Thermal plants account for one thousand five hundred and forty-eight of them.
Thermal generation is thus more than four fifths of the fleet. The share held by wind and sun is the remainder.
Renewables are therefore under seventeen percent of the power Ecopetrol makes for its own operations. 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, hydroelectric output collapses and thermal plants must fill the gap.
Solar panels do not help at night and cannot be dispatched on demand. A drought is precisely the moment a firm, controllable megawatt earns its keep.
So the company that is decarbonising is also the company keeping fifteen hundred megawatts of combustion on standby. Its refineries will supply diesel and fuel oil to thermal generators if the grid tightens further.
Ecopetrol is likewise expanding gas import capacity through terminals at Buenaventura and Puerto Bahía. Published figures for the latter vary considerably, and this newspaper will not settle them here.
Live Company IntelligenceEcopetrol SA ADR — the full investor dossier
Ecopetrol S.A. operates as an integrated energy company. It operates through four segments: Exploration and Production; Transport and Logistics; Refining and Petrochemicals; and Energy transmission and Toll Roads Concessions. The Exploration and Production segment engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas. The Transport…
Net income declined to COL$8.4 tn in 2025, from COL$21.1 tn in 2023.
The number nobody put in a headline
Buried in the same announcement is a genuinely impressive figure. Ecopetrol set itself a target of saving twenty-five petajoules of energy by 2030, and reached it in the first quarter of this year.
The cumulative saving since 2018 stands slightly above that mark. It equals the annual electricity consumption of roughly three point seven million Colombian households.
Four years early, on a target the company chose itself. For 2026 it plans a further three point one four petajoules, about eight hundred and seventy million kilowatt hours.
Of that, a portion is straight reduction in electricity use across its operations, worth some three hundred and seventy-five gigawatt hours a year. Enough to run a quarter of a million homes.
Efficiency, not generation, is doing 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 ambition is nine hundred megawatts of renewable self-generation. At three hundred and fifteen megawatts it has covered about a third of the distance.
The individual assets are real enough. The government’s own announcement of the La Cira Infantas farm records fifty-six megawatts across eighty-four thousand nine hundred panels on fifty-three hectares, for just under fifty million dollars.
Divide those figures and the capital cost lands near nine hundred dollars a kilowatt. That is competitive by any international standard.
La Cira and the Quifa farm alone make up nearly half the two hundred and thirty-four megawatts being advertised. The remaining two projects are small.
What a foreign investor should take from this
Acolgen, which represents the country’s generators, 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 Colombian government 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 capacity while its country’s gas reserves fall is describing 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 efficiency, self-generation, water management, fire prevention and gas supply, ahead of a drought forecast for the second half of 2026.
How much of Ecopetrol’s power is renewable?
About three hundred and fifteen megawatts of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, or under seventeen percent. The rest is thermal generation.
Why does a drought threaten Colombia’s power?
The country leans heavily on hydroelectricity. When reservoirs fall, gas and liquid fuels must cover the shortfall, and domestic gas is in decline.
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