ECUADOR WANTS TO DOUBLE GREEN POWER USE

clipped from www.planetaazul.com.mx LEON, Mexico, october, 12, 2009.- Ecuador wants 86 percent of its electricity needs to be covered by hydroelectric power by 2020, up from 43 percent now, Luis Castelo, an official at Ecuador's ministry of electricity and renewable energy, told Reuters in an interview. "We have massive hydroelectric resources in the country that have not been exploited for a long time," Castelo said at a climate forum in the central Mexican city of Leon. But he said one challenge is to appease local communities in the Amazon region that have voiced opposition to large-scale hydroelectric projects. "There is a lot of resistance from the indigenous communities. There's been a lot of effort to work with the communities so they see the projects as a source of jobs." The ministry, created in 2007, is now charged with implementing a clause in the country's new constitution that commits to increasing Ecuador's use of renewable energy.