From the Atacama Desert to Sonora, Latin America ramps up solar power

Brazil becoming a global leader in solar ahead of next year's COP30 in Belém.

This column is for Callaway Climate Insights subscribers only, but it’s OK to share once in a while. Was it shared with you? Please subscribe.

The El Romero solar photovoltaic plant, developed by Acciona in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Photo: Acciona.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.) 

SANTIAGO, Chile (Callaway Climate Insights) — El Romero, the largest photovoltaic solar plant in Latin America, supplies enough energy to meet the needs of 240,000 homes, just outside Chile’s capital.

In Mexico City, a new installation of 32,000 solar panels over rooftops across 52 acres will generate up to 25 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity per year.

And in Brazil, solar installations of about 17 GWh last year placed Brazil among the countries with the most solar power installed in the world. The boom in Brazil is mostly due to small-scale plants of five megawatts or less. But it won’t be lost on the government as it prepares to host COP30 next year, a milestone for the annual United Nations climate summit, in Belém.

---

Latin America emerges from the dark