Energy market in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean represent 8.25% of the world’s population with 670 million people.

Public investment in the region is low compared to other parts of the world, with governments playing a key role in providing the legal framework to attract private capital. 

Latin America and the Caribbean are seeking to increase power resilience and reliability. Much of the regions power comes from hydroelectricity, which is vulnerable to climate change. As a result, most countries are looking to diversify their energy mix, including non-conventional energy sources like solar and wind where there has been solid progress. 

These new energy sources require improvements in transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as energy storage systems and smart grid solutions. To support integration, many countries are introducing regulatory reforms to provide greater market flexibility, enable new business models and attract private investment.  

According to BNAmericas, “it is expected that more than 60 solar and wind projects account for nearly 90% of the approximately 90 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity, with solar representing almost 40 GW. Brazil and Chile are leading these developments, followed by Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Colombia.  

Latin America and the Caribbean are advancing in the energy transition by adding new energy capacity from solar and wind resources. Canadian companies providing solutions to support this growth will find in the region an interesting market that is adapting its regulatory framework to allow private participation not only in generation, but also in distributed energy, smart grids and energy storage solutions

For more information on energy in the Latin America and the Caribbean markets please contact claudia.gutierrez@international.gc.ca