Evaluating Critical Success Factors for Implementing Renewable Energy Strategies in the Dominican Republic

Global awareness and commitment, in regards to climate change, access to water and renewable energy deployment has risen in the last decade. However, many countries are still locked in unsustainable practices, specifically in regards to energy, this results in damaging consequences not just for the country but the world. Case in point of the Dominican Republic (DR), an island with an immense renewable energy potential, a growing economy and the financial aid of many international entities. Regardless of all this, “the business as usual” decision for the energy strategies is based on fossil foil. As a result, thousands of people are still without energy, the infrastructure itself is unreliable, and the cost of fossil fuel is 8% of the country’s GDP. In addition to, blackouts, the expensive tariff for users and unstable energy grid. Therefore, this paper discusses and critically evaluate critical success factors for implementing renewable energy strategies in the DR. For this purpose, an extensive literature review was done, along with interviews with the key actors in the renewable energy market of the DR. This resulted in the evaluation of the energy infrastructure by obtaining a clear view of the situation. Future work will involve creating a framework for implementation of renewables

Evaluation of renewable energy strategies in the Dominican Republic

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Dominican Republic electricity sector has been in crisis for decades, because of the ageing grid system, technical and nontechnical losses and the dependency of around 85% of its electricity from fossil fuel. However, the situation in the Dominican Republic is contradicting; the country has high renewable energy potential for generation, the international support, aid and funds, the willingness of the private sector, and the 57-07 law for incentives for renewable energy projects yet out of 200 renewable projects approved only 4 have been successfully implemented and are in operation. Why did so many projects fail? Why has the country had so difficulties making the transition? Those were some of the questions that drove this research. To answer those questions an exploratory qualitative research was undertaken with a pragmatism ideology at its core, due to the lack of documentation on the subject. The research focused on the energy sector especially electricity from renewable sources. To understand the environment for renewables in the country and lack of success in the area twenty-five key stakeholders representing the renewable sector in the country were chosen and through purpose and snowball sampling were interviewed in a semi-structured manner, as to allow for the participants to express the knowledge they possess. Through the literature review and the content and interpretive structural modelling analysis of the interviews, key drivers, challenges, critical success factors, benefits, financial tools and business model were identified, and their interlinking relationship was discovered. This identification and interconnectivity of the parameters aid in the creation of a successful framework for the implementation of renewable energy projects in the country, that could be used be the private and public sector of the country, the auto producers and local and international investors, which was the aim of the research.Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology, Dominican Republic

Financing renewable energy projects in the Dominican Republic: An empirical study

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Emerald in International Journal of Energy Sector Management, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJESM-10-2020-0002 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Purpose Currently, Renewable Energy (RE) sources represent a crucial pillar in obtaining sustainable development, one of the global goals for all countries. However, this presents a unique challenge for emerging and developing countries. Since, the technical and financial issues remain a significant barrier in implementing RE projects several mechanisms are available to aid the financial aspect of investing and implementing clean energy projects. This paper discusses new and traditional trends in the financial area of renewable investment, focusing on the Dominican Republic (DR), identifying the gaps in the financial area regarding RE. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was conducted in the Dominican Republic. This country is located at the heart of the Caribbean. Given the complexity of RE and developing countries issues and the scarcity of comparable research in the area, an interpretivist research paradigm along with the qualitative methodology was adopted. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The study sample includes: Directors, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Managers responsible for the implementation of RE strategies in their respective departments/organisations. NVivo software was used for data management and the collected data was analysed using content analysis. Findings The research highlighted several severe financial handicaps regarding RE in the DR: The lack of RE assets recognition; Lack of RE investment loans; Perceived RE risk; and Lack of financial guarantor. After extensive interviews with critical actors in the RE sector in the DR, the possible solutions and recommendations for avoiding locking the energy and economic sector in fossil fuel debt, are: (a) diversification of RE technology assets recognition (b) implementation of government RE fund (c) RE education on all actors (d) introduction and adoption of new financial trends such as: green bonds, bank pooling, cooperatives and more. Originality/value This paper provides information and knowledge related to financial tools and policies that are available for the RE projects in the DR. The results have a socio-economic impact. This research provides a better understanding of the key financial tools to be explored by RE project developers in the developing countries. This study shows the gaps that exist between the knowledge that the stakeholders should possess and the actual knowledge that exists in the country regarding the financial aspect of an RE project

Evaluating critical success factors for implementing renewable energy strategies in the Dominican Republic

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Renewable Energy on 12/12/2019, available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960148119319251?via%3Dihub The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Global awareness and commitment, in regards to climate change, access to water and renewable energy deployment has risen in the last decade. However, many countries are still locked in unsustainable practices, specifically in regards to energy, this results in damaging consequences not just for the country but the world. Case in point of the Dominican Republic (DR), an island with an immense renewable energy potential, a growing economy and the financial aid of many international entities. Regardless of all this, “the business as usual” decision for the energy strategies is based on fossil foil. As a result, thousands of people are still without energy, the infrastructure itself is unreliable, and the cost of fossil fuel is 6-8% of the country’s GDP. The country also suffers from blackouts, the expensive tariff and unstable energy grid. Therefore, this paper discusses and critically evaluates critical success factors (CSF) for implementing renewable energy strategies in the DR. For this purpose, an extensive literature review was done, along with 25 interviews with the key actors in the renewable energy market of the DR, that were analysed using content analysis and ISM method. These methods provided insight into 6 CSF. These CFS aid the stakeholder’s in the creation and growth of the RE market in the DR

Spatio-temporal mapping of local areas for engaging communities in the planning of smart local energy initiatives

Community engagement in the planning and delivery of smart local energy initiatives is essential for their long-term success. Spatial and temporal visualisation of local energy flows can be used to engage communities in a more joined-up way. This paper describes the development and trial of an online and interactive smart local area energy mapping (LEMAP) tool for planning smart local energy neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire (UK). The spatial-temporal tool has been designed for community groups and residents. The LEMAP tool brings together public, private and crowdsourced data on energy demand, energy resources, building attributes, socio-demographics, fuel poverty and electricity networks within the ESRI ArcGIS platform. Postcode and dwelling level energy demand profiles are generated using the CREST energy demand model. The tool has been organised around three technical and three engagement elements that include ‘baselining’ local area energy flows in relation to socio-economic characteristics; ‘targeting’ suitable properties for low carbon technologies (LCT) such as rooftop solar, heat pumps, EV chargers; and ‘forecasting’ energy demand profiles at postcode level for different LCT scenarios. The engagement elements include: ‘Participatory mapping’ to allow residents to visualise their energy demand profiles, compare against the neighbourhood and see how the profile changes with LCTs; ‘Storymap’ for creating blogs on local energy flows; and ‘Forum’ to enable chats amongst users of LEMAP and project stakeholders. The LEMAP tool was applied to a socially-deprived but datarich neighbourhood in Oxford omprising over 2,500 households. A social enterprise organisation in Oxfordshire was trained online to use LEMAP to plan for energy management at neighbourhood level. Participatory mapping was found to enrich the tool and engage communities to provide local data through online surveys and highlight any discrepancies in the public and private data through local data interpretation