Latin America leads New clean energy financial investment in Latin American countries, excluding Brazil, was US$3.8bn in 2009, up from US$1.9bn in 2008. Mexico was the largest individual country recipient of new investment, recording US$2bn during the year. Chile was the next largest with US$700m, followed by Peru, with the latter seeing a jump in investment to US$500m from US$100m in 2008.
During 2009, Mexico released a plan featuring specific targets for installed capacity and electrical generation from wind, geothermal, biomass, and biogas by 2012. Even though the targets are non-binding, they represent a clear government commitment to develop renewable energy. The programme calls for increasing the nation’s installed renewable energy capacity from approximately 3.3% of the total in 2008 to 7.6% by 2012, with wind power being the prime beneficiary.
The government of Peru concluded a tender process in November 2009 that was designed to add 500MW of new renewable generation capacity by 2012. The government’s first formal renewables target, adopted in 2008, calls for a renewables share of generation capacity of 5% by 2013. Biomass projects accounted for 310MW of 412MW successfully tendered in the initial phase.
Chile enacted a law stipulating that 5% of total production in new energy contracts must be provided by non-conventional sources. By 2024 it must be 10% of total energy production, equivalent to a figure of 3,410MW.
In Colombia, the national government has issued a directive that all new vehicles must have E85 flex-fuel capability by 2012. Colombia is second behind Brazil in biofuels production in South America, expecting to produce 137 million gallons of ethanol in 2010. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the government launched a 1GW renewable energy tender as part of its new Renewable Energies Law that aims to achieve 8% of energy sourced from renewables by 2016.
Africa lags behind Africa remains a relatively minor player on the global clean-energy landscape. Investment fell to US$900m in 2009, from US$1bn the previous year, and the continent accounted for less than 1% of the global total.
Egypt attracted the most investment, with the wind sector being the major recipient in that country. The largest investment in 2009 was in a US$490m, 200MW wind project in the Gulf of El Zayt. This project forms a further piece of Egypt’s expanding wind ambitions in the Gulf of Suez region.
The Department of Energy in South Africa launched its first national Integrated Resource Plan in 2009, outlining measures for incentivizing energy efficiency, and the development and commercialization of renewable power. The plan outlines energy guidelines that public utility Eskom and the National Energy Regulator must follow. It stipulates that 1,145MW of power must come from renewable energy projects in the private sector by 2012. The plan focuses on saving energy, rather than building new power stations. It includes plans to install solar panels on government buildings, as well as to fit one million low cost, government-built homes with solar water geysers before 2014.
A funding deal for French institutions to invest US$283.4 million in Ethiopia’s 120MW Ashegoda wind farm was agreed in 2009. The total project cost of Ashegoda stands at US$315m, with 90% financed by banks and the balance from the project developer, Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. The Ashegoda farm, located in the north of Ethiopia and deemed the first of its kind in the country, is in the initial stages of construction.
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