More than 63,500 MW of new power generation capacity will be installed in Brazil by 2022, according to the government's ten-year power expansion plan, PDE 2022. The plan calls for the majority of new capacity to be large hydropower, which has dominated Brazil’s electricity matrix for decades. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects multiple factors to constrain hydropower’s expansion. Most importantly, environmental and social sensitivities are expected to increase over time due to the nature and location of Brazil’s remaining hydropower resources, which are heavily concentrated in the Amazon region. Large hydropower projects in the Amazon rainforest (more than 20,000 megawatts are contracted or under construction) are far from the main centers of demand and face resolute opposition from indigenous peoples and civil society organizations. If the Amazon were to be off-limits for new hydropower projects, a scenario the IEA World Energy Outlook 2013 contemplates, a significant portion of new capacity would shift to other sources.  

Enel Green Power, a unit of Italy’s biggest power utility, will build two solar plants and a wind farm in Chile with total capacity of 161 MW, according to Bloomberg. The projects will cost about $320 million and are expected to begin operations by the first half of 2015. Power will be sold at a rate of $128 a megawatt-hour, according to a statement from the company. Enel is currently constructing Chile’s largest solar farm in the northern Atacama desert. The “Diego de Almagro” plant will have a total installed capacity of 36 MW, according to Enel.

SolEnergy Farms, together with Perfect Energy and Solar Horizon, will invest $150m in solar energy, with the aim of producing 60 MW in El Salvador, according to Power Engineering International. Initially, $35m will be invested in a 10 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the municipality of Tecoluca, in the central department of San Vicente. Sol Energy also indicated that it was considering investing an additional $40m in a second phase to produce and sell 40 MW to AES, the private utility.