Latin America. According to Latinometrics "from hydropower in Costa Rica to wind turbines in Patagonia, Latin America is defying expectations and becoming a world leader in renewable energy."
It is relevant to indicate that Latinometrics is a weekly newsletter focused on offering data visualizations and relevant information about Latin America. In that sense, from the magazine ACR Latin America we made a synthesis of a post in which this organization exposes the perspective of energy production in LATAM that comes from renewable sources and what that can mean in the future.
Paraguay leads the ranking of Latin American countries that use renewable sources to generate electricity, according to an analysis by Latinometrics. With a population of 7 million people, Paraguay's secret lies in its two large hydroelectric dams located on both sides of its borders with Argentina and Brazil. One of them, the Itaipu Binacional dam, is the second largest hydroelectric plant in the world (by gigawatts produced).
"Paraguay uses a part of the electricity produced by this power plant and the Yacyretá Argentina dam that the country shares with Argentina. It then exports a large amount of surplus energy to Brazil at a controversially discounted tariff."
In second place is Costa Rica, which gets about 80% of its power from hydroelectric sources and is known for running entirely on green energy in recent years.
According to information from Latinometrics, Andean countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, which are major exporters of fossil fuels, are also achieving good performance in renewable energy generation, each obtaining more than 60% of its electricity production from renewable sources.
This puts them ahead of industrial heavyweights such as Germany or the United States, and well ahead of their regional peers in Argentina or Mexico.
Overall, the Latin American region is ideally positioned to lead the world in the green transition, whether thanks to strong winds from Patagonia or large solar projects such as the Villanueva Solar Park, located in Mexico.
In this way, "Latin America can do more than simply achieve energy self-sufficiency; It can become a net exporter of renewable energy to the world, driving economic growth and sustainable development all at once."
Finally, Latinometrics. He said regional leaders have already begun to promote moving away from fossil fuels toward cleaner alternatives, "such as Colombian President Gustavo Petro," but the publication also indicated that collaboration between governments and companies is needed to achieve a "green future."
