Latin America

The Colombian authorities said the received offers did not comply with the criteria for competition and market dominance. Enel Green Power, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar and Solarpack were among the developers that were admitted to the auction’s final phase.

New deals or projects related to the sale of solar power to big energy consumers were announced in Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile over the past weeks.

In an interview with pv magazine at this year’s Intersolar SA in Sao Paulo, Rodrigo Sauaia, president of Brazilian solar association, ABSSOLAR discussed the current issues and opportunities in Brazil’s PV market. The association is calling on the Brazilian Government to contract up to 2 GW of solar power in future auctions, and to maintain current rules for DG. The private PPA segment, meanwhile, which only a year ago appeared unviable, has begun to show positive results. All in all, solar in Brazil is growing, despite the hurdles created by a difficult political and economical environment.

Colombia’s Celsia is issuing green bonds worth US$145 million to finance its large solar PV project pipeline, while U.K.-based Faro Energy is resorting to clean energy bonds to fund its distributed generation (DG) solar projects across Brazil.

Mexico is set to become the largest solar PV market in Latin America, with around 2 GW of installs expected annually. Political and regulatory uncertainty do not appear to be affecting investor interest, with more opportunities than challenges present. pv magazine attended GTM Research’s Solar Summit Mexico last week to report on the latest developments in the Mexican market.

The Swiss-headquartered power electronics firm will install a 230 kV digitally enable substation and connection bay at Brazil’s Juazeiro II substation, which will eventually deliver power from a 156 MW solar plant. 2017 full year financials reveal transitional year for firm.

AES El Salvador and Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI) plan to build 100 MW of PV capacity in three phases at 10 sites in El Salvador.

The Italian solar tracker specialist will deliver and install its TRJ tracking solution to two Brazilian solar PV plants in Sao Pedro and Juazeiro.

The engineering firm has signed a partnership agreement to collaborate with China’s Yingli Green Energy on the construction and connection of several PV projects in Chile, Colombia and El Salvador.

In its New Energy Outlook 2017 report (NEO), published earlier this week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) outlines its expectations for energy in the Americas between now and 2040. The report predicts big for the key regional markets Brazil, Chile and Mexico.