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Articles on Renewables in Latin America

• Chile will lead Latin America in renewable energy, says president
  Oct 20, 2014 - Monique Avila - pv-tech.org

  The president of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet said the country will aim to become a leader in renewable energy.

• Latin America at a Climate Crossroads
  Sep 17, 2014 - Analysis by Susan McDade - www.ipsnews.net

  UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2014 (IPS) - World leaders gathered at the Climate Change Summit during the United Nations General Assembly on Sep. 23 will have a crucial opportunity to mobilise political will and advance solutions to climate change.

• Leading the Charge in Mexico’s Renewable Energy Revolution
  Sep 17, 2013 - Vince Font - renewableenergyworld.com

  Utah, USA -- August 11 was an auspicious day for Mexico. Some seventy-six years after the government nationalized the country’s oil industry, President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law an energy reform package that many are saying will have a transformative impact on the economy of Mexico.

• Colombia-Panama Power Grid: Project to Restart Transmission Line After Two-Year Hiatus
  Jul 26, 2014 - Anjalee Khemlani - latinpost.com

  After a two-year hiatus, a project to build transmission line to connect the Colombian power grid to Panama and provide more electricity to Central America has been restarted.

• Renewables generate 84 percent of Uruguay's energy
  Jun 12, 2014 - Yahoo.com

  MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's government said on Thursday that 84 percent of its energy last year came from renewable sources.
  

• Largest solar plant in Central America inaugurated in Guatemala
  May 28, 2014 - globalpost.com

  Guatemala City, May 28 (EFE).- Spanish developer Gran Solar, Guatemala's Grupo Green and Swiss investor Ecosolar on Wednesday inaugurated Guatemala's first solar power plant.

  
  
• Chile Installs Record-Breaking 150MW of PV in Q1, 380MW Under Construction
  Apr 7,2014 - Mike Munsell - greentechmedia.com
  
  Four major projects came on-line, giving Chile a promising start to the year.
  
  
• SunEdison announces financial close on largest merchant solar project in Latin America
  Apr 1, 2014 - Lucy Woods - pv-tech.org
  
  SunEdison has announced financial close on a 50MW solar plant in Chile, which it claims is Latin America’s largest operational PV plant and also one of the biggest PV projects in the world operating without subsidies.
  
  
• Latin America's Largest Solar Power Plant Goes Online In Mexico
  Mar 28, 2014 - insideclimatenews.org
  
  Latin America's largest solar power plant, a facility with 39 MW of generating capacity, has gone online in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
  
  
• Abengoa To Develop South America's Largest Solar Thermal Plant
  Jan 10, 2014 - Solar Industry
  
  Abengoa has been selected by the Ministry of Energy of the Chilean Government and Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion (Corfo) to develop a 110 MW solar plant in Chile.
  
  
• Chile to build 110MW CSP tower
  Jan 10, 2014 - Lucy Woods - pv-tech.org
  
  Chile’s Ministry of Energy and government agency for entrepreneurship, COFO, has awarded a tender for South America’s first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant.
  
  
• Bolivia plans first megawatt-scale PV plant
  Jan 08, 2014 - Andy Colthorpe - pv-tech.org
  
  The Bolivian government has announced that US$11 million will be invested to build the country’s first megawatt-scale solar power station.
  
  
• Latin America Report: Chile's Road To Solar Grid Parity
  Sep 11, 2013 - James Montgomery, Associate Editor - renewableenergyworld.com
  
  New Hampshire, USA -- Chile has become one of the planet's most promising solar markets, leading a wave of regions that will begin achieving grid parity, where solar is at equal cost or cheaper than traditional energy sources, in the near future. High electricity prices ($0.15-0.25/kWh), high irradiation, and rising energy demand all play in Chile's favor, but connection and policy hurdles remain if the country wants to really start tapping into that resource.
  
  
• Chile sets revised 20% by 2025 renewable energy target
  By Andy Colthorpe - 05 September 2013 - pvtech.org
  
  The Chilean senate has voted this week on revised targets for renewable energy production, making a unanimous decision in favour of aiming for producing 20% of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by 2025.
  
  
• The Way Forward for Renewable Energy in Central America
  September, 2013 - WolrdWatch Institute - worldwatch.org
  
  With joint support from the Climate Development Knowledge Networkand the Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America, and in close cooperation with the INCAE Business School, the Worldwatch Institute has completed the most comprehensive and up-to-date status survey and gap assessment of renewable energy in Central America.
  
  
• 500,000 households to be solar powered in Peru
  By Lucy Woods - 10 July 2013
  
  500,000 households are to be provided with solar panels via Peru’s National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program (NPHEP), which aims to provide 95% of Peru with energy, by 2016.
  
  
• Latin America Report: Mexico Just Scratching the Surface of Solar Demand
  Feb 20, 2013 - renewableenergyworld.com
  
  New Hampshire, USA -- With huge swaths of flat desert surfaces and tons of sunlight, Mexico is a prime location for solar power, even though potential financial backers are struggling to adequately understand the advantages of solar PV or risk evaluation.
  
  
• Update: Sky Solar to invest US$900 million into Chilean market
  Jul 13, 2012 - Nilima Choudhury - pv-tech.orgk
  
  Chinese company Sky Solar will be a conduit to help form a strategic partnership for bilateral free trade between China and Chile. CEO Amy Zhang recently attended a banquet hosted by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in the capital, Santiago, an event also attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his entourage.
  
  
• Solaria to develop 50MW of PV projects throughout Argentina
  Jul 4, 2012 - Anne Zimmermann- pv-tech.org
  
  Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente is planning to develop upto 50MW of PV projects in Argentina, the company has announced.
  
  
• Solarpack lands contract to supply energy to Collahuasi copper mine in Chile
  Jul 3, 2012 - Syanne Olson- pv-tech.org
  
  Spain-based Solarpack Corporacion Tecnologica was recently awarded a contract to supply energy to northern Chile’s Collahuasi copper mine. According to a statement emailed to Bloomberg from Compania Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi, the company will deliver 60,000MWh of energy a year from two solar plants, beginning in Q4 2013.
  
  
• Costa Rica's 'green economy' shows that money can grow on trees
  Jun 26, 2012 - Ina Porras - guardian.co.uk
  
  A creative approach to sustainable development includes paying for environmental resources, such as forests and water
  
  
• Sky Solar plans to enter Chilean PV market with 300MW project
  Jun 26, 2012 - Anne Zimmermann- pv-tech.org
  
  Chinese PV company Sky Solar is planning to invest in a 300MW PV project in Chile, according to a report by Reuters.
  
  
• Cuba Focuses Efforts on Renewable Energy
  Jun 11, 2012 - energycentral.com
  
  Cuba looks forwards to adding a 16.5 percent renewable energy contribution to the country's energy output as a crucial factor for security, sustainability and sovereignty. 
  
  
• South America and the Caribbean to receive US$600 million funding for renewable energy projects
  Mar 19, 2012 - Nilima Choudhury - pv-tech.org
  
  The Inter-American and Development Bank (IDB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have entered a co-financing agreement worth US$600 million to invest in renewable private-sector projects in South America and the Caribbean.
  
  
• Nicaragua powers up on green energy
  Feb 23, 2012 - PRONicaragua - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  What was once a weakness has become one of the country's strengths. The transformation of Nicaragua's energy sector could well become a case study for other countries.
  
  
• Wind Could Become Brazil's Second Power Generation Source in 2015
  Jan 31, 2012 - Ivan Castano - renewableenergyworld.com
  
  BRAZIL -- It's one of those stories everyone's talking about, at least in Brazil's wind energy space. And it should come as no surprise. Under its newly launched energy expansion plan, the government intends to boost installed wind power generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020 from a mere 1.5 GW now, bringing new and exciting investment opportunities for developers and entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Carbon War Room releases Livestock Report
  Aug 19, 2011 - Guy Pinjuv, Ph.D., Lead Analyst and Matthew Cullinen, Editor - carbonwarroom.com
  
  Over the next decade and beyond, Brazil will rely heavily on the clearing of tropical forests to make way for the expansion of livestock rangeland.
  
  
• UN says green energy investment at record level
  Aug 11, 2011 - google.com
  
  PARIS — Investment in renewable energy last year amounted to a record 211 billion dollars, a rise of 32 percent over 2009 and 540 percent over 2004, a UN-backed report said on Thursday.
  
  
• Ecuador adopts feed-in tariffs
  June 8, 2011 - Paul Gipe - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  The programme by the South American country of 15 million people includes multiple technologies, including solar photovoltaics (PV). Biomass-biogas and hydro projects are further differentiated by size.
  
  
• Carribbean-wide power grid under discussion in Puerto Rico
  May 15, 2011 - Karen Hollish - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - The Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Thomas - energycentral.com
  
  Officials from islands across the Caribbean gathered in Puerto Rico recently to discuss interconnecting utilities to reduce electricity costs, promote reliability and reduce fossil fuel use in their home communities.
  
  
• Doors Wide Open for Renewable Energy
  May 11, 2011 - Danilo Valladares - ipsnews.net
  
  GUATEMALA CITY, Heavy reliance on petroleum imports, the need for electricity in rural areas, and the ongoing effort towards sustainable development have focussed Central America's attention on renewable energy. But that doesn't mean there isn't opposition.
  
  
• Skyline Solar’s new LCPV system to be installed at 500kW power plant in Mexico
  Mar 27, 2011 - Syanne Olson - pv-tech.org
  
  In conjunction with debuting its new Skyline X14 system, Skyline Solar announced that the system would be used in a 500kW concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) project in Durango, Mexico. DelSol Systems, which will lead the construction on the solar installation, asserts that this will be the largest CPV plant in Latin America to date.
  
  
• Four Latin American countries to bolster energy integration
  Mar 09, 2011 - Xinhua - energycental.com
  
  LIMA, Government ministers from Peru, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador agreed on Friday to advance an electricity interconnection project to strengthen energy integration and security in the region.
  
  
• Spanish group to build wind farm in Honduras
  Aug 11, 2010 - EFE
  
  Spanish firms Gamesa and Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion announced Monday they won a contract to build a 102 MW wind farm in Honduras.
  
  
• Latin, South America turning to renewable energy
  Aug 11, 2010 - Steven K. Paulson - AP - Energy Central
  
  Latin American and South American countries are turning to renewable energy and power sharing to serve their rapidly growing populations, taking advantage of equatorial sunshine and sprouting wind farms.
  
  
• Puerto Rico Aggressively Pursuing Renewable Energy
  Jul 30, 2010 - Puerto Rico - Department of Economic Development and Commerce - energycentral.com
  
  In order to promote and facilitate the development of renewable energy sources in Puerto Rico, the Government of Puerto Rico is establishing and implementing a series of new policies that will create the necessary legal framework to spearhead said development.
  
  
• Chile’s Atacama may become Latin America’s Desertec
  May 24, 2010 - Sonia Credencia - latinobusinessreview.com
  
  According to numerous studies, Chile’s Atacama desert receives more solar radiation than any other desert in the world, giving the desert the potential to be transformed into Latin America’s Desertec.
  
  
• Brazil puts 399 wind farms, 79 other energy projects out for bids
  Apr 30, 2010 - EFE
  
  The Brazilian government put 399 wind farm projects and 79 other renewable energy projects up for bidding, with the auction expected to be held in two months, the state-owned Energy Research Corporation, or EPE, said.
  
  
• Colombia says willing to export electricity to drought-hit Ecuador
  Apr 13, 2010 - Xinhua
  
  Colombia is ready to sell electricity to Ecuador to help ease the power shortage caused by a severe drought in the neighboring country, Minister of Mines and Energy Hernan Martinez said Monday.
  
  
• Recovery prospects dim for Haiti electric utility
  Feb 24, 2010 - Associated Press
  
  Six weeks after a catastrophic earthquake flattened downtown Port-au-Prince, power has returned to nearly half the city's neighborhoods.
  
  
• Jatropha revival: SG releases first elite cultivar; 350 gallons per acre at $1.39/gallon, optimized for Guatemala
  Feb 22, 2010 - biofueldigest.com
  
  In California, SG Biofuels announced the launch of JMax 100, billed as the “world’s first elite jatropha cultivar”, optimized for production in Guatemala with yields, based on trialing of the cultivar on several thousand acres, of 350 gallons per acre and a production cost of $1.39 per gallon for jatropha oil.
  
  
• 40% wind energy in the Falklands
  Feb 18, 2010 - Rnewable Energy Focus
  
  The Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic have commissioned three new wind turbines that will supply 40% of the settlement’s electricity.
  
  
• Venezuela to mull electricity offers from Colombia, Brazil
  Feb 17, 2010 -- EFE
  
  The Venezuelan government said it will consider electricity offers from Colombia and Brazil, a day after indicating the country could find its way out of a severe power crisis with domestic supplies, state-run media reported Wednesday.
  
  Mexican Cities to Benefit from FedEx-EMBARQ Transport Collaboration
  Feb 5, 2010 - CSR wire
  
  The National Network for Sustainable Urban Mobility in Mexico was launched today by FedEx Corp. and its operating companies with EMBARQ - The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport.
  
  
• Shell & Cosan To Form Ethanol JV in Brazil
  Feb 3, 2010 - Renewable Energy World
  
  Shell International Petroleum Company Limited and Cosan S.A. this week signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU), under which the companies plan to form a US $12 billion joint venture (JV) in Brazil for the production of ethanol, sugar and power, and the supply, distribution and retail of transportation fuels.
  
  
• Acciona completes assembly of LatAm's largest wind farm
  Nov 23, 2009 - Energy Central
  
  Spain's Acciona Energia said Monday it completed the assembly of the Eurus wind farm in Mexico, an energy facility with total potential generating capacity of 250.5 MW and costing $550 million.
  
  
• Nissan to sell electric-powered vehicles in Mexico City in 2011
  Oct 29, 2009 - EFE
  
  Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Corp. and the Mexico City government reached an agreement "to begin the large-scale sale of cutting-edge, electric-powered vehicles in the capital by the end of 2011," officials said.
  
  
• Nicaragua placing its bets on solar energy
  Oct 5, 2009 - EFE
  
  Nicaragua intends to become less dependent on electricity from fossil fuels in the short term, and to do that the country is carrying out solar development projects along the Caribbean coast and in rural areas, the deputy energy minister said Monday.
  
• Brazil rolls out region's 1st hydrogen-powered bus
  Jul 1, 2009 - EFE
  
  Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy and Sao Paulo's Empresa Metropolitana de Transportes Urbanos presented here on Wednesday Latin America's first hydrogen-powered bus, a vehicle that emits no polluting gases.
  
  
• Mexico signs deals for two wind farms
  Jun 10, 2009 - EFE
  
  Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, said it has signed separate contracts with a unit of Spanish power utility Iberdrola and a Mexican consortium for the construction of two wind power plants in the southern state of Oaxaca.
  
  
• Venezuela Moves Forward with Renewable Energy Initiatives
  May 14, 2009 - Ministry of People’s Power for Energy and Petroleum, Press Unit of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United States
  
  The Ministry of People´s Power for Energy and Petroleum (MENPET) through the Directorate of Renewable Energy and the Foundation for the Development of Electric Service (FUNDELEC), has moved forward with important initiatives in the national project “Simon Bolivar First Socialist Plan”.
  
  
• La Revolucion Energetica: Cuba's Energy Revolution
  Apr 9, 2009 - RenewableEnergyWorld.com
  
  A new revolution is sweeping the island of Cuba, which is making massive progress on energy efficiency and renewable generation. Indeed, such is the success of the two-year old programme on this small island of 11 million people, that many other countries could learn from its efforts to be energy independent and curb climate change. Laurie Guevara-Stone reports. (Photographs by Mario Alberto Arrastia Avila.)
  
  
• Irish firm to invest $1 bn in Chilean wind farms
  Mar 26, 2009 -EFE
  
  Ireland's Mainstream Renewable Power plans to invest more than $1 billion in Chile over the next five years to build wind farms, the company's co-founder and CEO, Eddie O'Connor, said.
  
  
• GDF Suez continues wind energy developments in Latin America
  Feb 13, 2009 -- Datamonitor
  
  French power and natural gas major GDF Suez has announced that it is continuing its expansion in renewable energy through developments in wind power in Latin America.
  
  
• Central America Energy: Renewables, Integration & Investment
  Dec 12, 2008 - Institute of the Americas
  
  Central America has a population of approximately 39 million people with a regional average GDP per capita of US$2000; varying from US$4500 in Costa Rica to $500 in Nicaragua. Over half of the population lives in poverty and more than one in every two of those who are poor live in extreme poverty. In addition, Central America is a net importer of hydrocarbons with only Guatemala and Belize counting a small amount of oil production. Hydroelectricity has dominated the electricity generation of the region but in recent years there has been a strong growth of thermoelectric generation using diesel, natural gas and coal. The region’s main source of energy for household use remains traditional biomass.
  

• A Blueprint for Green Energy in the Americas
  2007 - Garten Rothkopf - Inter-American Development Bank
  
  Strategic Analysis of Opportunities for Brazil and the Hemisphere Featuring: The Global Biofuels Outlook 2007
  
  
• Ecuador president declares power emergency
  Aug 8, 2007 - Xinhua
  
  QUITO, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency in the nation's power sector Wednesday, amid a surge in national electricity consumption and an energy export stoppage by Colombia.
  
  
• U.S. energy secretary positive about opening of Mexican electricity
  2000 - Associated Press
  
  U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Friday characterized as "very positive" a proposal by Mexico's president-elect to open this country's electricity sector to private investment.

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