PRESENTATION
At the end of July, Institute of the Americas Energy Transition Initiative Director, Cecilia Aguillon visited El Salvador for strategic energy policy conversations and to participate in, the Salvadoran Association of Engineers and Architects ASIA Week 2019, “90 years of ASIA: El Salvador towards sustainable development.”
Cecilia Aguillon was a featured speaker at ASIA 2019. During her keynote presentation, Aguillon spoke about the IOA’s work on energy transition issues and shared her insights on renewable energy markets in the Americas. Her remarks and presentation focused on best practices and lessons learned from renewable energy market leaders in the Americas such as California, Brazil and México.

Aguillon also joined a panel discussion with Valdemar Saravia, member of the board of directors of the regulatory authority SIGET and vice president of ASIA; Silvia Vides, Director of the UNDP for El Salvador; Victor Ventura, Chief of Energy and Natural Resources Unit at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America in Mexico; and Herbert Palacios of the El Salvador´s National Energy Council. The panel featured a robust discussion centered around the opportunities and challenges of making energy policies, energy efficiency and renewable energy more accessible to people from all socio-economic sectors of El Salvador.
During her time in El Salvador, Aguillon took the opportunity to meet with newly appointed Director of the National Energy Council, Salvador Handal and the new Superintendent of the Regulatory authority SIGET, Manuel Aguilar. The meetings with these officials proved an important complement to her remarks and presentation at the conference and are crucial for maintaining the close relationship the Institute of the Americas has enjoyed with energy policymakers in El Salvador.