The continued growth of the fossil fuel industry in Latin America and the Caribbean, notwithstanding, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is projecting that 2023 will see the region look fixedly at solar energy as its mainstream source of energy. Seemingly setting aside the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean are, collectively, increasingly making their presence felt as world class fossil fuel providers, the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) article notes that the hemisphere is also blessed with “the largest solar power development pipeline outside Eastern Asia and North America” and is constructing “over four times more solar capacity than Europe, and nearly seven times more than India,” the world’s third-largest solar producer.
China, according to the GEM report currently occupies the position of the world’s largest and fastest-growing producer of renewable energy, a position which, the report says, it has occupied for more than a decade. More than that, GEM says, China has also widened its global lead in the energy transition through a steep acceleration in the rollout of wind capacity since 2021. China, reportedly, has added more wind generation capacity in the past two years than it had done over the previous seven. In 2022, the country reportedly generated 46% more wind power than the whole of Europe, which region had been the world’s top wind power producer until 2020. China’s rapid rollout of wind capacity, along with a more than 27% surge in solar generation in 2022 from the year before, reportedly helped push its electricity share from clean energy sources to a record 34.2% last year.
Higher generation of renewable power has also helped cap power costs for consumers, just as the prices of coal and natural gas have risen sharply on international markets. Arguably the surprise revelation of the GEM probe has to do with the revelation that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are significant players in the solar power industry. This, given the fact that the region is home to some of the genuine heavyweights in the global oil and gas industry including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia and Caribbean Community member countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
The report says that while solar power currently generates only 3-4% of the electricity produced across Latin America and the Caribbean, “with nearly 250 projects constructing 19,429 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity”, the region’s solar power supply potential is primed to jump by at least 70%. According to the report, the main drivers behind the solar push in the hemisphere are Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru.
It says that collectively these countries account for over 88% of the current installed solar capacity in the region, and about 97% of planned capacity additions that are already in construction. Ironically, those same countries also reportedly account for roughly 65% of the region’s power sector emissions of CO2.
