Diagnóstico y alternativas energéticas sostenibles en el sector productivo de rosas del Ecuador

Abstract

Energy management in a rose producing and exporting company is relevant in its sustainable managing, operation that is demanded in export markets and that can be measured through sustainability indicators such as the carbon footprint. The energy consumption of electricity and fossil fuels, in the floricultural sector, constitute a problem to the increase in the indicator of the carbon footprint because they are sources of generation of GHG (greenhouse gases), and it is necessary to work on real solutions according to the conditions of this exporting sector. Unfortunately, knowledge about clean energy technologies in the floricultural sector, especially in the production of roses, is not updated and there is no information on real energy consumption in the production process. Therefore, in this research, measurements of energy consumption in farms were carried out. For the sectoral monitoring an energy consumption indicator was set up that will be part of the sustainability indicators of floriculture, in the National Association of Exporting Producers and Marketers of Flowers of Ecuador- Expoflores. From the results obtained, it was shown that the highest energy consumption was in cooling and pumping. Consequently, measures were proposed to improve energy efficiency that are estimated to reduce electricity consumption between 18 and 27%. Furthermore, under the conditions of luminosity in the production areas and the high electricity consumption in the floricultural companies, one of the alternatives proposed for the energy efficiency plan in this research is photovoltaic solar energy.