Renewable Energy Growth Opportunities in Latin America & Caribbean

The renewable energy focus has slowly been shifting away from traditional national powerhouses in Europe and North America towards developing nations, primarily across the Southern Hemisphere. A new report published by the Worldwatch Institute has analysed the particular market barriers and growth pathways available for two specific regions, Latin America and the Caribbean, and found that renewable energy growth could address significant economic, social, and environmental challenges.

The report, Study on the Development of the Renewable Energy Market in Latin America and the Caribbean, published Wednesday, was designed to identify renewable energy growth opportunities and barriers, and offer up specific methods to overcome these challenges.
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As the report’s authors note, “renewables are increasingly the most economic option for new generation capacity, especially for countries that depend on fuel oil for power generation, such as many in Central America and the Caribbean.”

Hydropower has long been an important part of Latin America and the Caribbean’s energy mix.  Large-scale hydro has long been and will continue to be the driving force of renewable energy the world over, and most definitely in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The region has the world’s greenest electricity mix in terms of carbon intensity,” says Ochs.  “But its large dependence on hydropower creates a security risk for many countries, given changing rainfall patterns, melting glaciers, and the competition for scarce water resources among economic sectors.  New distributed renewables have world-class potentials in many parts of LAC and are an effective and cost-efficient way to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.”

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