The oil crisis and the concerns on climate change, however, have led to establish international policies and to review the feasibility of energy generation with renewable sources and sustainable processes. Nevertheless, again every region has been adopting different energy models based on their own history, needs, policy and resources. Thus, local context influences how energy is produced and consumed in different regions.
In order to solve the energy requirements for a country, a trans-disciplinary analysis is required to consider not only economical factors, but also environmental and social issues, to offer a new way to sustainably produce and consume energy. This analysis must consider geographical and meteorological data, economical and technical capacities, as well as interest of public and private organizations. The political and economic interests influence principally to make particular decisions. Finally, the society should also be informed in order to participate actively in the process.
The NEXUS experience brought together six scholars from different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Jamaica, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico (Energy Group). They were interested in informing local energy policies through scientific analysis and they realized that everyone had a different approach from the others. The discussion of the subjects helped to understand that it is necessary to know deeply the ways of every region in order to offer right solutions. By instance, Mexico, as oil producer, has different perspectives in energy to Jamaica, an island with oil importation; or Chile, with a longer history in private investments for the energy sector, has different preoccupations to Uruguay or Ecuador, where the government has a bigger control. Moreover, the Energy Group was influenced with specialists from other disciplines participating in the NEXUS project and had learnt a number of subjects different to the technical energy issues, proposing a more complete analysis.