President opens wind farm – advocates coal

At a ceremony  to launch a pollutant free windfarm in Penome on Tuesday, July 3 President, Ricardo Martinelli said that if there is an opportunity, the Government  will adopted a law for generating energy from coal.

"You have to go looking for fuel … to generate electricity more cheaply, more efficiently, because a country develops long as you have cheap energy," said the president.

Martinelli also took the opportunity to express his discomfort with one of the conditions established by the recently passed law for gas generation. "I do not agree with us giving  a subsidy of 5% to gas companies. When these companies participate with the State it has to  to be in a 50-50 relationship” he said.

During his speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the wind farm in Penonomé  he said: "When we came to power  they did not want us to change the energy mix because here there are many vested interests who wanted the Panamanian people to continue paying for expensive energy. There were companies that did not sell all their electricity and there were companies that did not buy all their produce.”

A press release from the Office of the President said that the wind farm Penonomé  will be able tosupply more than 100 000 families in Panama, and that the Park will avoid the use of 145 thousand tons of oil annually to generate energy, and  reduce the emission of 450 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment.