The Venezuelan energy crisis: Renewable energies in the transition towards sustainability

Modern society is aware of the importance of energy, as a fundamental resource for evolution, quality of life and sustainability. It thus dedicates important efforts to take advantage of existing energy sources. Countries have different and unique energy performances depending on the combination of resources, policies, and structures created to exploit them. Some are successful in their attempt to optimize their energy resources while others are not. This is the case of Venezuela, which faces a contradictory energy performance. Despite its substantial available renewable and non-renewable energy resources, it presents a severe energy crisis. This crisis manifests itself in frequent and extended energy blackouts and electricity services alterations, which affect all society. With the aim to propose some solutions, the authors make an attempt to identify the origin of the Venezuelan energy crisis, unexplainable in a country which two decades ago was an indisputable world energy leader. The authors evaluate the relationship among energy and sustainability, the renewable potential existing in Venezuela, as well as some new data and key insights regarding its energy framework. Special reference is made to infrastructure energy projects in Venezuela. The discussion leads to the identification of the structural problems that cause such a crisis and include some recommendations. The authors propose a thorough study of this case in order to consider it as an international reference and to avoid the repetition of similar cases in the future. Finally, an entirely new orientation of the Venezuelan energy framework and the strategies that include the revision of the current energy policies and the management of this sector are proposed. Such proposals are presented to help Venezuela in its transition to a new energy stage in which renewable energy, knowledge and sustainable criteria become the fundamental resources to address the country on its path to sustainability.