The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is on track to install 9 GW of solar PV within five years, according to a new report from NPD Solarbuzz . The LAC solar PV market now exceeds 22 GW of projects across all phases of development.  “Solar PV is now starting to emerge as a preferred energy technology for Latin American and Caribbean countries,” said Michael Barker, senior analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. “The region has high electricity prices and it also benefits from strong solar irradiation, which makes it a good candidate for solar PV deployment. As a result, experienced global solar PV developers are seeing strong solar PV growth potential in the region.”

Key findings from NPD Solarbuzz include:

• Previously, the LAC region was confined to small-scale and off-grid solar PV applications, including rural electrification.
  
• Today, however, solar PV is being targeted to address large-scale utility power project requirements, primarily in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
  
• Many of these projects are being developed by experienced international firms, including leading U.S.-based companies First Solar, SunPower and SunEdison, and European developers Mainstream, Enel, and Solaria, which is increasing the likelihood that these projects will ultimately be executed.

ACORE's white paper, “Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean,” analyzes issues and opportunities in the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region's renewable energy markets. New sources of renewable energy funding are increasingly available, according to the White Paper. Sources include local and multinational development banks such as the Inter‐American Development Bank (IDB), Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), as well as foreign and local private investors. These positive signals indicate that the LAC region will continue to be an important location for renewable energy investment and deployment in the years to come.

On March 19, 2014, the Institute participated in a roundtable hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on the topic of “Sustainable Infrastructure.” The IDB is the leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. Besides loans, the IDB also provides grants and technical assistance and conducts research.  In 2013, the IDB released a new infrastructure strategy  [English | Español].

IDB representatives opened the event by highlighting the following key questions: How do we determine whether infrastructure projects are increasing the welfare of society? Are they are providing a decent service? Are they within the boundaries of the environment / biome?

Three Pillars of Sustainability
Three pillars of sustainability were discussed: Physical, Social, and Environmental. On the topic of environmental sustainability, the buzzword was “upstreaming,” which means that the IDB aims to engage governments in much earlier stages of infrastructure project planning in order to introduce sustainability concepts at the policy-making and project development stage (upstream), rather than later at the financing stage (downstream). After the opening presentation, panelists from academia and civil society organizations shared their expertise and perspectives on these issues. In particular, speakers emphasized the importance of engaging ministries of finance and planning and highlighting the economic benefits of sustainability (e.g., positive impact on GDB growth, reduction in project delays and costs).

Infrastructure Sustainability Evaluation Tools
Speakers from Harvard University and the US Department of Transportation and highlighted several web based tools for evaluating the sustainability of infrastructure projects.

• Envision™ is a sustainable infrastructure rating system that provides a holistic framework for evaluating and rating the community, environmental, and economic benefits of all types and sizes of infrastructure projects. It evaluates, grades, and gives recognition to infrastructure projects that use transformational, collaborative approaches to assess the sustainability indicators over the course of the project's life cycle. Envision™ is the product of a joint collaboration between the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.
  
• INVEST (Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool) was developed by the Federal Highway Administration as a practical, web-based, collection of voluntary best practices, called criteria, designed to help transportation agencies integrate sustainability into their programs (policies, processes, procedures and practices) and projects. While the use of INVEST is voluntary, it can be used by transportation agencies and their consultants and partners, to evaluate and aid the integration of sustainability into their programs and projects.

Two recent technical papers published by the InterAmerican Development Bank highlight the economic and societal benefits of renewable energy and energy storage technologies to Latin America and the Caribbean: Societal Benefits from Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean and Potential for Energy Storage in Combination with Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are attracting more clean energy investment as governments strengthen policy support and local supply chains expand, according to Climatescope 2013, a new report from the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

The LAC region captured 6% of the total $268.7 billion invested worldwide in clean energy in 2012, up from 5.7% in 2011. (For purposes of the Climatescope analysis, clean energy is defined as wind, solar, biomass, small hydro, geothermal and other renewable power generation, and biofuels.)

“The rapidly falling costs of clean technologies such as solar and wind power combined with an improved investment climate means that clean energy generation in the region is now truly affordable,” said Nancy Lee, General Manager of the MIF.

Chilean Energy Minister Jorge Bunster and Indian Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah met in Santiago, Chile in September to explore greater collaboration between the two countries in renewable energy development.

Abdullah offered India’s support and expertise to Chile in setting up renewable projects as well as in capacity building and project preparation through the services of Indian experts and institutions like Centre for Wind Energy, Solar Energy Centre, and Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, according to a statement by the Indian government.

The minister also offered training slots in India to Chilean scientists, engineers and technicians through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programm, and expressed his country’s desire for a serious and meaningful cooperation with Chile and the entire Latin American region.

Chile is almost entirely dependent on imports for meeting its energy requirements and is looking to diversify by introducing a large component of renewable energy in its energy mix. Bunster noted the Chilean government’s interest in setting up a 50 megawatt solar thermal generating capacity in the north of the country, according to the statement.

REN21’s Renewables 2013 Global Status Report provides a comprehensive overview of renewable energy market, industry, investment and policy development worldwide. In a free webinar on October 7, REN21 experts will discus the status of renewables in South America. Click here to register.  Full report is available here.

Globally, 2012 saw:

• A shift in investment patterns from industrialized to developing countries
• A decrease in overall clean energy investment in dollar terms but simultaneously saw an increase in installed capacity in gigawatts due to significant technology cost reductions
• Renewables progressively supplementing established electricity systems demonstrating that the implementation of suitable policies can enable the successful integration of higher shares of variable renewables
• The emergence of integrated policy approaches that link energy efficiency measures with the implementation of renewable energy technologies.

Non-traditional renewable energy technologies (NRETs) —solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, small-scale hydropower, and advanced bio-energy—together with improvements in energy efficiency—are now ready to play a major role alongside hydropower in meeting the energy needs in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a white paper recently released by the Inter-American Development Bank. The authors note that the costs of these technologies are falling rapidly, and in many cases are competitive with fossil fuels. Globally, the scale of recent developments in renewable energy suggests that a historic energy transformation is underway. NRETs —assembled in large power plants as well as widely decentralized small systems— are rapidly diversifying the energy economies of many nations.

The 2013 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest has launched a new call for proposals for improving energy efficiency and expanding access to renewable energy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Proposals must be submitted by August 15, 2013 via the www.iadb.org/ideas website. The competition is open to any organization, consortium, or individual based in IDB member countries in Latin America or the Caribbean. Successful applicants may receive up to $100,000 per project, disbursed over a period of 12 months. The winners must provide a counterpart of 20 percent of the total amount of the award provided to support the project.This counterpart contribution may be financial or take the form of time, materials, equipment, or personnel.

The latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index released by Ernst & Young ranks 40 countries on the attractiveness of their renewable energy investment and deployment opportunities, based on a number of macro, energy market and technology-specific indicators. As of May 2013, six countries in the Americas were included in the index (rank in parentheses): US (1), Canada (7), Brazil (15), Chile (18), Peru (26), and Mexico (29). The report highlights Chile as "South America's rising star" due to "perfect conditions" for renewable energy deployment:  "lack of oil reserves, unreliable gas imports, high electricity prices, surging energy demand driven by the mining sector, and power shortages arising from a traditional overreliance on hydropower."