"Colombia's wind farms bring promise and pain for indigenous group", 4 April 2025

With some of Colombia's most powerful winds, La Guajira has now become the epicentre of the country's shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy...

[José Luis Iguaran, an indigenous Wayuu fisherman's community]now shares its land with Guajira 1 - one of Colombia's two operational wind farms. Another 15 wind farms are currently under construction in La Guajira, and there are plans for dozens more.

Mr Iguarán says that his community has benefited from Guajira 1. The energy company behind it, Colombian firm Isagen, has paid for them to have access to clean drinking water, better roads, and sturdy brick houses, which have replaced some of the mud and cactus ones. Isagen, which is owned by Canada's Brookfield, also pays three local communities an annual fee for the wind farm to be there, a percentage of annual electricity revenues...

Mr Iguarán believes such energy projects can help bring vital development to Colombia's second-poorest region. But not everyone shares his enthusiasm.

"The wind farms produce clean energy, but they create division within the Wayuu communities," explains Aaron Laguna, a Wayuu fisherman...

AES Colombia is developing the country's largest wind energy cluster in La Guajira, with six wind farms.

The company insists it maintains an open dialogue with communities, offering fair compensation, and ensuring benefits such as clean drinking water and shares in carbon credits...

Despite the talk of progress, [Mr Laguna] points to a lingering paradox. "The worst thing is we won't receive even a single kilowatt of the electricity produced here," he laments.

The plan is for the wind farm's electricity to instead be sent elsewhere, and that the village will continue to rely on generators, at least in the medium term.