Proyecto Energía Renovable Galápagos (Project ERGAL)
2001 - 2009
2001 - 2009
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Project Description: Électricité de France, France's national electric power utility and an active member of the e8 Network of Expertise on the Global Environment (e8), conceived Project ERGAL in 1998 to repower the electric power sector in the Province of Galápagos (Republic of Ecuador) with renewable energy technologies due to the increasing risk of an oil spill. On the evening of 16 January 2001, the MV Jessica ran aground at Wreck Bay, at the entrance to the port of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the Galápagos Province, located on the southwestern coast of San Cristóbal Island. The ship was carrying 600 tons (160,000 gallons) of diesel oil and 300 tons (80,000 gallons) of intermediate fuel oil. On 20 January, fuel oil began to spill from Jessica, releasing a total of 175,000 US gallons of diesel and fuel oil into the sea.
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The MV Jessica was one of the worst environmental disasters in the archipelago's history, shutting down the Galápagos tourism economy, Ecuador's 3rd-largest source of foreign revenue, for over one year. In response, the United Nations launched Project ERGAL to repower the Province of the Galápagos diesel-powered electricity sector with renewable energy technologies. In January 2001, the White House (Clinton Administration) referred the SolarQuest Education Foundation, Inc., to the United Nations and American Electric Power to plan a feasibility study to repower the Province. In 2002, the Republic of Ecuador approved the feasibility study. After years of environmental impact studies and structural reforms to the Ecuadorian electricity sector, the project was completed in December 2008, with the commissioning ceremony celebrated in 2009.
Project ERGAL Commissioning Ceremony (2009):
Project ERGAL Organization Diagram:
The United Nations Foundation (UNF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which comprises eighteen collaborating institutions that act as project-implementing agencies to support project development, implementation, and execution, served as the Project ERGAL fiscal agents. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Partial Listing of Project Partners:
Project ERGAL, technically the Renewable Energy for Electricity Generation-Renewable Electrification of the Galapagos Islands, Global Environment Facility (GEF) (Project ID#1135), was seeded with a $1 million grant from the United Nations Foundation and supported with $3,239,666 in funding from the GEF and $27,576,469 in co-financing from over 41 project partners listed below:
Download Two-page Project Brochure:
| Project ERGAL 2001-2009.pdf |
Television News Story (1:24 Min.) - Spanish
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Project Documentary (16:06 Min.) - English
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