Country and Regional Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean

In developing Latin American and Caribbean countries and regions, NREL supports initiatives for deploying renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, and advanced grid management technologies and systems.

Antigua and Barbuda

We provided technical assistance to partners in Antigua and Barbuda on:

  • Procurement of grid-interactive solar photovoltaics with battery energy storage systems and accessories for schools and clinics
  • A workforce development strategy for priority energy sectors in Antigua
  • Development of a community solar program and tariff design
  • Deployment of electric buses.

As part of the Caribbean regional effort, we're currently scaling up assistance for Barbuda on rebuilding energy infrastructure and developing resilient renewable energy systems.

Argentina

We collaborated with Argentina on training in performance contracting and energy service company (ESCO) market development and on wind resource assessment. We also advised Argentina on development of a renewable energy laboratory.

Brazil

We work with partners in Brazil on renewable energy and energy efficiency policy analysis and evaluation of improvements to strengthen grid management, as well as on wind and biofuels assessment and research, analysis of renewable energy for rural electrification, and silicon solar cell research.

Regional Support in the Caribbean

Along with providing capacity building and energy project development efforts in the Caribbean, NREL provides technical support to Barbuda, Dominica, and other island nations with rebuilding their energy infrastructure and developing resilient renewable energy systems following hurricanes. In partnership with the Organization of American States, CARICOM (Caribbean Community), and other multinational organizations, we have also provided clean energy policy advisory support to several Caribbean countries, including advising Grenada on its overall renewable energy strategy.

Chile

We assisted the Chilean Renewable Energy Center with developing a concentrating solar power solicitation, green disaster relief efforts, renewable energy working groups, a Latin American gateway in Spanish on openei.org, Chile's innovation investment program, and training on analysis tools.

Colombia

We're assisting the government of Colombia and other partners with designing their renewable energy auction program, distributed generation interconnection standards and procedures, and compensation mechanisms, as well as strengthening mini-grids and energy access programs in the Zones Most Affected by the Armed Conflict. We're also teaming with industry partners to mobilize investment in distributed photovoltaics (PV) projects. We provided staff and training support to build low-carbon development capacity in the Colombian Ministries of Environment; Mines and Energy; Transport; Commerce, Industry and Tourism; Finance and Public Credit; and Agriculture.

Costa Rica

We supported the development of a regional energy efficiency center in Costa Rica. The center will be located at the University of Costa Rica and will work in cooperation with many other government agencies to expand local knowledge on energy efficiency topics and provide training and other services.

Dominican Republic

We're partnering with Dominican Republic government agencies, nonprofits, multilateral agencies, and private sector firms to evaluate and potentially develop financing mechanisms. This will support deployment of solar and energy efficiency systems for public hospitals and possibly other facilities, including schools. We're also building technical capacity in areas of PV deployment and building energy retrofits, and may advise on policy design to enable distributed PV deployment. In addition, we're engaging with a subscriber-based nonprofit organization focused on corporate social responsibility and clean energy to potentially offer energy audit training and analysis to member companies.

Guyana

We're teaming with the Global Green Growth Institute and partners in Guyana to conduct an initial assessment of improvements needed in the grid infrastructure, controls, data, and management systems in Guyana to support larger-scale renewable energy penetration.

Haiti

NREL is partnering with the Government of Haiti, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other institutions to support clean energy development. Specific activities include support for development and implementation of a mini-grid request for proposal (RFP) process and training to support developers in preparing high quality RFP bids; development of a Renewable Energy Data Explorer geospatial analysis tool and capacity to use it to inform data-driven clean energy decision-making; and techno-economic analysis to support solar hybridization of a 10-MW diesel-fired power plant.

Jamaica

We assisted Jamaica with installation of dataloggers in buses and conducted a transportation assessment, which was shared with the USAID Mission and Ministry of Transport in March 2018. The assessment will help the government of Jamaica with a transportation policy and related improvements in the transport system.

Mexico

We partner with a large number of government agencies, regulators, system operators, and technical institutes at national and state levels to provide analytic and technical support for Mexico's power system reforms. This includes cooperation on:

  • Grid integration studies and regional road maps
  • Regulations and market design
  • Grid management controls
  • Infrastructure improvements.

We're also partnering with Mexico and Canada on a North American regional grid interconnection assessment. NREL also has supported modern wind energy mapping and modeling methods as well as design and testing of advanced wind turbines with Mexico along with greenhouse gas abatement cost and economic modeling.

Peru

We're developing a Renewable Energy Data Explorer for Peru, including renewable energy resource data and associated GIS and other data sets relevant to Peru. We're also conducting analysis and providing technical support to inform Peru's decisions on their renewable energy targets and will conduct economic analysis of opportunities for distributed PV deployment.

Regional Support

NREL and partners provide technical and financial support for several regional programs of the Low Emissions Development Strategies Partnership for Latin America and the Caribbean (LEDS-LAC). This includes communities of practice and technical collaboration across countries on:

  • Bioenergy
  • Sustainable transport solutions
  • Clean energy investment mobilization
  • Private sector partnerships
  • Low-carbon agriculture measures
  • Coordinated national and sub-national LEDS action.

These activities engage nearly 1,000 practitioners across LAC countries.

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