In August 2024, the Venezuelan government inaugurated a solar farm in El Vigía, Mérida, but did not install batteries to optimize energy usage. (Photo shared by Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez)
Venezuela’s bid to light its isolated communities with renewable microgrids has largely unravelled, mirroring the broader decline of a national power system centralized under former president Hugo Chávez.
Projects once promoted as a clean-energy lifeline now sit idle across Venezuela, undone by funding shortages, weak maintenance, and chronic mismanagement. Meanwhile, non-government actors and companies have successfully implemented small, local solutions to fill the void.
In 2005, the Chávez government created Sembrando Luz (Sowing Light), a program aiming to bring solar and wind energy to communities disconnected from the national grid. Nearly 3,100 systems were installed, but critics say the program fell to ruin after Chávez nationalized the power sector in 2007. When oil prices plunged in 2015, government revenues evaporated, with limited funds available for programs like Sowing Light. Authorities now focus on preserving remaining equipment rather than expanding access.
The national grid tells a similar story. Since nationalization, energy production has plummeted. While the country has a nameplate capacity of 36 gigawatts, studies suggest only 12 to 18 gigawatts are actually available.
In 2019, a dramatic blackout left the entire country without power for a week. Officially, almost 100% of Venezuelans have electricity access with 70 to 90% of energy coming from hydropower plants, but in reality, citizens are resorting to cutting and burning urban trees for fuel amid outages.
Experts blame corruption and a lack of supervision for power disruptions and infrastructure decline. In the “Derwick boys” case, two well-connected cousins received US$5 billion in energy contracts without a competitive bidding process, and were accused of buying obsolete or damaged equipment. Downstream from the famous Guri Dam, new hydropower installations were never completed amid leaks and delays, wasting billions of dollars meant for new energy sources.
When 80% of the population was left in darkness in 2019, the cause was found to be forest fires that could have been prevented by cutting the grass around high-tension transmission towers. But officially, the government cited an electromagnetic attack by a sniper. It also blamed iguanas, capybaras, and birds as vultures, for eating cables.
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Under the state monopoly National Electric Corporation (CORPOELEC)—which in 2007 replaced a network of regional private companies—skilled workers were often replaced by loyalists lacking experience. In one case, Guri Dam turbines were damaged when they were used without adequate water.
When the electricity crisis deepened in 2010, the government appealed to China for help, but Chinese-funded thermal plants also stalled amid mismanagement.
The constant neglect or abandonment of public works, 246 different projects by 2022, including railways, agricultural companies, and vehicle plants, stems from a diversion of public funds to foreign banks and fraudulent schemes, a decline in oil revenue, and poor planning, according to several reports by Transparencia Venezuela.
Large renewable projects tied to the Sembrando Luz initiative have also stalled: a solar farm in Los Roques, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, installed panels, but was abandoned more than 10 years ago. Another solar farm installed in 2024 in El Vigía, Mérida, never worked due to a lack of batteries. Yet another 50-megawatt solar farm in El Vigía was still under construction in December, 2025, seven months after the panels arrived. The last update about it—a short video of the Electricity Minister posted in February on YouTube—finished with a “Happy Xmas,” revealing its actual date of recording.
Communities in the northwestern state of Zulia, which boasts the highest solar radiation in Venezuela, were brought small, hybrid systems. Two came through the Sowing Light program and two others through international organizations.
The first two communities are Wayúu Indigenous who live in the Wayuu Nation, a territory covering areas in Venezuela and Colombia with borders that they don’t recognize. They live near the La Guajira wind park which was abandoned without completion.
In Punta Manglar, an island in the middle of Lake Maracaibo, a hybrid system supplies electricity to 17 homes. It includes 54 solar panels, a diesel generator, 40 batteries, and a wind turbine, but the panels are susceptible to lightning strikes, say officials.
In Poolos, Alta Guajira, where there is no conventional electrical connection for 50 kilometres, a microgrid powers a school and 24 homes. It is equipped with a wind turbine, 36 photovoltaic panels, a generator, and 48 batteries, and remains operational as of September 2025, but the community lacks the capacity or knowledge to perform maintenance and repairs.
By 2019, 60% of systems installed by Sowing light in rural and indigenous communities were operational, says electrical engineer and author Alejandro López González. He blames bureaucracy for the shutdown of alternative energy projects—alongside a lack of funding and a government that sees renewables as a “threat to an oil model.”
Where the state has faltered, others are stepping in. The United Nations Humanitarian Response Program installed and delivered solar lightning systems from 2021 to 2024, including solar street lamps.
One of the priority areas was Wuichepe in Zulia, also a Wayuu community. The inhabitants told Ojo Al Clima how their lives improved thanks to an underground well plus photovoltaic system installed by the NGO Techo. The system alleviates frequent blackouts, can last up to 20 hours a day, and helps maintain religious traditions like night vigils, while reducing the use of handmade kerosene lamps. But problems arose here, too: a second well stopped working amid neighbourhood conflicts, and the community lacks the know-how to repair damaged solar lamps.
The International Red Cross has had better success. In a rural medical clinic in El Cruce, Zulia, it provides care to several communities that once travelled hours to reach a health centre. Doctors say solar panels allow for constant primary care and expanded services, including showers, bathrooms, and delivery rooms.
But the organization has its own vulnerabilities. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Justice intervened in the local Red Cross chapter, accusing it of corruption and dismissing its president and board of directors.
Venezuela’s first non-state-owned solar, wind, and green solar roof project was installed in 2019 at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), which also has a sustainable energy program, batteries with a capacity to store 12,000 watts, and automated irrigation of the green roof plants that reduce the building’s temperature by 6°C.
Since 2020, the telecommunications company Digitel has introduced solar energy in several beach tourist destinations in Venezuela. The installations came first to the coastal towns of Cuyagua and Choroní, and then in Los Roques, in the Caribbean.
In February 2024, the Nestlé plant in Aragua state installed a five-megawatt photovoltaic solar park just months after the Venezuelan-American Center of Margarita inaugurated a microgrid of 16 solar panels with 28 batteries. As of January 22, 2026, it remains operational.
Energy advocates are calling for “island mode” solutions to help pull Venezuela out of its electricity deficit. They say private actors could generate electricity using the large volumes of natural gas currently being flared or vented, while microgrids could power industrial, commercial, and residential hubs while the broader transmission network undergoes upgrades.
After the blackouts, former president Nicolás Maduro announced new efforts to promote renewables and then in 2024 heralded new solar partnerships with Turkey, Russia, Iran, and China, but legislation to allow private sector participation remains stalled.
For now, the sun remains in state hands, even as the lights go out.
It helps us measure & strengthen the impact of our reporting.
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In August 2024, the Venezuelan government inaugurated a solar farm in El Vigía, Mérida, but did not install batteries to optimize energy usage. (Photo shared by Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez)
Venezuela’s bid to light its isolated communities with renewable microgrids has largely unravelled, mirroring the broader decline of a national power system centralized under former president Hugo Chávez.
Projects once promoted as a clean-energy lifeline now sit idle across Venezuela, undone by funding shortages, weak maintenance, and chronic mismanagement. Meanwhile, non-government actors and companies have successfully implemented small, local solutions to fill the void.
In 2005, the Chávez government created Sembrando Luz (Sowing Light), a program aiming to bring solar and wind energy to communities disconnected from the national grid. Nearly 3,100 systems were installed, but critics say the program fell to ruin after Chávez nationalized the power sector in 2007. When oil prices plunged in 2015, government revenues evaporated, with limited funds available for programs like Sowing Light. Authorities now focus on preserving remaining equipment rather than expanding access.
The national grid tells a similar story. Since nationalization, energy production has plummeted. While the country has a nameplate capacity of 36 gigawatts, studies suggest only 12 to 18 gigawatts are actually available.
In 2019, a dramatic blackout left the entire country without power for a week. Officially, almost 100% of Venezuelans have electricity access with 70 to 90% of energy coming from hydropower plants, but in reality, citizens are resorting to cutting and burning urban trees for fuel amid outages.
Experts blame corruption and a lack of supervision for power disruptions and infrastructure decline. In the “Derwick boys” case, two well-connected cousins received US$5 billion in energy contracts without a competitive bidding process, and were accused of buying obsolete or damaged equipment. Downstream from the famous Guri Dam, new hydropower installations were never completed amid leaks and delays, wasting billions of dollars meant for new energy sources.
When 80% of the population was left in darkness in 2019, the cause was found to be forest fires that could have been prevented by cutting the grass around high-tension transmission towers. But officially, the government cited an electromagnetic attack by a sniper. It also blamed iguanas, capybaras, and birds as vultures, for eating cables.
View our latest digests
Under the state monopoly National Electric Corporation (CORPOELEC)—which in 2007 replaced a network of regional private companies—skilled workers were often replaced by loyalists lacking experience. In one case, Guri Dam turbines were damaged when they were used without adequate water.
When the electricity crisis deepened in 2010, the government appealed to China for help, but Chinese-funded thermal plants also stalled amid mismanagement.
The constant neglect or abandonment of public works, 246 different projects by 2022, including railways, agricultural companies, and vehicle plants, stems from a diversion of public funds to foreign banks and fraudulent schemes, a decline in oil revenue, and poor planning, according to several reports by Transparencia Venezuela.
Large renewable projects tied to the Sembrando Luz initiative have also stalled: a solar farm in Los Roques, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, installed panels, but was abandoned more than 10 years ago. Another solar farm installed in 2024 in El Vigía, Mérida, never worked due to a lack of batteries. Yet another 50-megawatt solar farm in El Vigía was still under construction in December, 2025, seven months after the panels arrived. The last update about it—a short video of the Electricity Minister posted in February on YouTube—finished with a “Happy Xmas,” revealing its actual date of recording.
Communities in the northwestern state of Zulia, which boasts the highest solar radiation in Venezuela, were brought small, hybrid systems. Two came through the Sowing Light program and two others through international organizations.
The first two communities are Wayúu Indigenous who live in the Wayuu Nation, a territory covering areas in Venezuela and Colombia with borders that they don’t recognize. They live near the La Guajira wind park which was abandoned without completion.
In Punta Manglar, an island in the middle of Lake Maracaibo, a hybrid system supplies electricity to 17 homes. It includes 54 solar panels, a diesel generator, 40 batteries, and a wind turbine, but the panels are susceptible to lightning strikes, say officials.
In Poolos, Alta Guajira, where there is no conventional electrical connection for 50 kilometres, a microgrid powers a school and 24 homes. It is equipped with a wind turbine, 36 photovoltaic panels, a generator, and 48 batteries, and remains operational as of September 2025, but the community lacks the capacity or knowledge to perform maintenance and repairs.
By 2019, 60% of systems installed by Sowing light in rural and indigenous communities were operational, says electrical engineer and author Alejandro López González. He blames bureaucracy for the shutdown of alternative energy projects—alongside a lack of funding and a government that sees renewables as a “threat to an oil model.”
Where the state has faltered, others are stepping in. The United Nations Humanitarian Response Program installed and delivered solar lightning systems from 2021 to 2024, including solar street lamps.
One of the priority areas was Wuichepe in Zulia, also a Wayuu community. The inhabitants told Ojo Al Clima how their lives improved thanks to an underground well plus photovoltaic system installed by the NGO Techo. The system alleviates frequent blackouts, can last up to 20 hours a day, and helps maintain religious traditions like night vigils, while reducing the use of handmade kerosene lamps. But problems arose here, too: a second well stopped working amid neighbourhood conflicts, and the community lacks the know-how to repair damaged solar lamps.
The International Red Cross has had better success. In a rural medical clinic in El Cruce, Zulia, it provides care to several communities that once travelled hours to reach a health centre. Doctors say solar panels allow for constant primary care and expanded services, including showers, bathrooms, and delivery rooms.
But the organization has its own vulnerabilities. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Justice intervened in the local Red Cross chapter, accusing it of corruption and dismissing its president and board of directors.
Venezuela’s first non-state-owned solar, wind, and green solar roof project was installed in 2019 at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), which also has a sustainable energy program, batteries with a capacity to store 12,000 watts, and automated irrigation of the green roof plants that reduce the building’s temperature by 6°C.
Since 2020, the telecommunications company Digitel has introduced solar energy in several beach tourist destinations in Venezuela. The installations came first to the coastal towns of Cuyagua and Choroní, and then in Los Roques, in the Caribbean.
In February 2024, the Nestlé plant in Aragua state installed a five-megawatt photovoltaic solar park just months after the Venezuelan-American Center of Margarita inaugurated a microgrid of 16 solar panels with 28 batteries. As of January 22, 2026, it remains operational.
Energy advocates are calling for “island mode” solutions to help pull Venezuela out of its electricity deficit. They say private actors could generate electricity using the large volumes of natural gas currently being flared or vented, while microgrids could power industrial, commercial, and residential hubs while the broader transmission network undergoes upgrades.
After the blackouts, former president Nicolás Maduro announced new efforts to promote renewables and then in 2024 heralded new solar partnerships with Turkey, Russia, Iran, and China, but legislation to allow private sector participation remains stalled.
For now, the sun remains in state hands, even as the lights go out.
It helps us measure & strengthen the impact of our reporting.
Have more to say? Email community@theenergymix.com
Your email address will not be published.
I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
…
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