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Rolling blackouts have been a daily reality for 25 million Venezuelans since last winter. That’s when a prolonged drought began to cut the output of the hydroelectric dam that provides 70 percent of the country’s electricity. The World’s Marina Giovannelli reports.(Photo: Marina Giovannelli) Download MP3
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. Democrats in Washington are scrambling this month to cobble together an energy bill. They’re looking for that magic formula that can begin to wean the country off its dependence on oil and start to cut greenhouse gas pollution, while also winning enough Republican votes to pass in the Senate. It’s an elusive goal, but let’s count our blessings. At least we have enough energy to run our economy. Not so in much of the world. Take Venezuela, for instance. The oil-rich South American nation is actually in the middle of a power crisis. The World’s Marina Giovannelli reports.
MARINA GIOVANNELLI: Vito Noble’s juice company just outside Venezuela’s capital Caracas is surrounded by lush mango trees. His huge walk-in freezer is stuffed with kilo-bags of mango juice waiting to be trucked off to local restaurants. Except for when the power goes out.
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GIOVANNELLI: Last month, Noble says, 700 kilos of juice rotted during a black out.
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GIOVANNELLI: Noble lets out a heavy sigh. The outage cost him a lot of money. It also damaged some of Noble’s big steel juicers. And it was hardly an isolated event. Venezuela has been locked in a power crisis for more than six months. Planned blackouts paralyze neighborhoods across the country for hours at a time. And sometimes the power just goes out without warning.
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GIOVANNELLI: The system is highly unstable, says Pedro Pinto. Pinto scribbles on his whiteboard at the Central University in Caracas, where he directs the school of electrical engineering. His figures demonstrate the obvious about life here. There’s not enough power to go around. Most of Venezuela’s power comes from a single source. The massive Guri hydroelectric dam, in eastern Venezuela, heard here in a You Tube clip. It’s one of the biggest in the world. It supplies 70% of the country’s power and it’s in trouble.
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GIOVANNELLI: The dam has been crippled by a drought, Pinto says…
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GIOVANNELLI: …caused by the recurring El Nino weather phenomenon. The severe drought left barely enough water to power the dam. But Pinto says the current crisis goes beyond this one drought.
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GIOVANNELLI: If we knew the El Nino was coming, Pinto says, we should have planned for the drought. Instead, he says, Venezuela’s power system has been neglected for years. And Pinto says government subsidies make the situation even worse.
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GIOVANNELLI: He says electricity here costs roughly a fourth of what it costs in the US. So people use a lot more than they need to. Still the power cuts have been wildly unpopular, and Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has been slammed for his handling of the crisis. He’s countered the criticism by handing out thousands of energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs. And he’s announced big plans for new energy sources, like wind, solar and nuclear.
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GIOVANNELLI: But Chavez’s promised energy revolution remains just a whisper. The government is building one small wind farm. But its 100 megawatts or so of electricity are just a tiny fraction of the new capacity the country needs. And critics say the government doesn’t have a good history of delivering on energy promises.
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GIOVANNELLI: Eduardo Suzin says new hydroelectric power projects have been delayed 5, 10 years. He owns a renewable energy company in Caracas. Suzin sells wind turbines and solar panels. He believes those energy sources should be an important part of the country’s future. But he says he’s not expecting a renewable solution to Venezuela’s energy crisis anytime soon. Where the future does seem to be is oil. The country has plenty of it. It’s the tenth largest oil producer in the world. And right now, amid the promises of new green power, Venezuela is instead buying up all the oil-fired power plants it can get its hands on. Even green energy entrepreneur Eduardo Suzin says it makes sense.
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GIOVANNELLI: If we want to meet our electricity demand within five years, Suzin says, fossil fuels are the most reasonable way to go. It’s a stark reality, and an ironic turn at a time when much of the world is questioning the wisdom of its dependence on oil. But juice maker Vito Noble doesn’t care where his power comes from. He just wants enough to keep his factory going. He considered installing solar panels to help weather the blackouts. He realized it would be just too expensive.
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GIOVANNELLI: Besides Noble says he would need to fill a field with solar panels to power his company. All he wants is total control over the off switch. But that’s not going to happen any time soon. Seasonal rains have retuned to Venezuela, but it’s not nearly enough to solve the country’s energy crisis. For The World, I’m Marina Giovannelli, Caracas, Venezuela.
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