Central & South America

The Colombian authorities have allocated 4.4 GW of solar capacity at a rate of $0.0182/kWh in the nation’s latest energy auction, with solar plants accounting for approximately 99% of the assigned capacity.

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) reports that Brazil currently has more than 85% renewable electricity, mainly hydropower, but with rapidly growing shares of solar and wind power. With 2.3 million rooftop PV systems installed so far and more than 90 million consumer units still available to go solar, favourable energy policies and cheap PV are encouraging the fast uptake of solar in the country.

PV module imports fell by 1% year on year in Brazil in 2023, according to a new report from solar consultancy Greener.

Portable solar generators are making their way from the fringes of solar and energy storage to become a mainstream consumer item. The rise has been charged by a range of factors that have created massive brands. Where did the sector emerge from, who was buying before, who is buying now, and what’s next? Tristan Rayner reports.

While distributed solar and storage are advancing quickly in Puerto Rico, utility-scale solar and storage procurements ordered by regulators in 2020 have made little progress.

Brazil has pushed past 38 GW of total installed PV capacity, with around 26.3 GW consisting of distributed-generation solar systems.

The novel solar cell uses antimony trisulfide (Sb2S3) as the back surface field (BSF) layer. According to its creators, this layer can be included in conventional CIGS solar cells to improve their efficiency and reduce the absorber material’s cost.

Saba Electric Co. (SEC), an energy supplier on the Caribbean island of Saba, is seeking expressions of interest for a solar, wind and battery energy storage system. The deadline is Feb. 5, 2024.

An international research team has identified parameters to integrate PV cells into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Grenergy said its new power purchase agreement (PPA) for 260 MW/1,100 MWh of solar-plus-storage in Chile has a duration of 15 years. The installation is part of the fourth phase of the massive 1 GW/4 GWh Oasis de Atacama solar-plus-storage project.