By Julien Ferrat, BuenosAiresHerald.com staff.

Sven Teske is the head of the Renewable Energies global campaign at Greenpeace. The German Engineer visited Buenos Aires to present his project to the media and warn the government about the situation in the world and in the country (see presentation attached). He talked to the BuenosAiresHerald.com about Greenpeace's views on the renewable energy situation in Argentina and the plan the organization is proposing for the country.

BuenosAiresHerald.com: What is the purpose of your visit to Argentina?

Sven Teske: We are working on an global energy scenario project, which means were are putting energy scenarios together for the world, regions and different countries to show how the climate-friendly energies strategy could look like for each single country where we are working. And what is the situation in Argentina regarding the renewable energies capacity?

Argentina has huge resources in terms of wind development but also some biomass and solar. Combined with energy efficiency, this could be the major source of energy for Argentina especially on the power sector. There is already a high share on large hydro plants. With our concept, we wouldn´t expand it, just keeping it how it is and develop wind and biomass.

Argentina is depending too much on oil and gas?

Yes, if a country relies only on imported fuels, the cost cannot be controlled by the government. Whatever happens on the global market increases or decreases the price and this fluctuation will be a serious negative impact on the economy.

What is Greenpeace's plan about this?

Our concept relies on seven different technologies, so even if one technology becomes a bit more expensive there are still six others to back it up. A mix of renewable energies is also a matter of security of supply, not only environmental.

What's the government's role now?

For Argentina we need a long lasting turbines system for renewable electricity. They don't need to be extremely high but they need to be reliable for the over the next twenty years. With a reliable policy, the industry can invest. It is much more important that the government provides a legal framework, than subsidies. I will give you an example: if the industry knows the will get six cents for kwh for the next twenty years they can make it fit with their calculation and invest. If there is a subsidy that will guarantee them eight cents per kwh, but only for a year, it won't work.

What technologies for Argentina?

I think the true main technologies for Argentina's power supplies is the wind energy and then biomass. This should be the first choice.

Individually, what could the Argentines do better in terms of energy and environment protection?

They could have efficient equipment at home. But I think this is not only in the hands of the Argentine people, but the government could establish efficiency standards. So you don't have a chance of buying inefficient equipment. Efficient equipment is not necessarily more expensive.