Why Does Dominican Republic Use Fossil Fuels? The Dominican Republic relies heavily on fossil fuels for its energy needs due to a combination of economic, infrastructural, and resource availability factors. The country lacks significant domestic reserves of renewable energy sources like hydro, wind, and solar power, making imported oil, coal, and natural gas the primary energy sources. Additionally, the existing power infrastructure has been historically built around fossil fuels, making a transition to cleaner energy challenging and costly.