The world is embroiled in an energy crisis that would worsen if the war in Ukraine were to escalate and end up involving other countries and weapons such as nuclear warheads. The conflict has pushed up the prices of food and basic services, not only that Western Europewhich largely depends on gas and oil supplied by Russia, but by regions such as Latin America.
Although the cost of this input has increased, the region has a broad matrix, which is reflected in the coverage and access to it. According to Energy Hub, the coverage index The average for Latin America and the Caribbean reaches 97.38%, with Barbados being the most developed in this field with a rate of 100%. Followed by Cuba (99.98%), Uruguay (99.90%), Brazil (99.77%) and Chile (99.70%). Colombia records an availability of 96.81%.
In contrast, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, 18 million citizens do not have access to electricity and cannot store their food refrigerated or access other services. “However, the region has made significant progress over the past decade, increasing its coverage from 52% in 1970,” the entity emphasizes.
Although the most notable progress has been in rural housing, where the percentage of access has grown by more than 20 percentage points (from 65.3% to 87.5%), countries such as Guatemala, with 22.1%; Nicaragua, with 14.3%; El Salvador, with 11.1%; Honduras, with 7.4%; Panama, with 6.1%; Bolivia, with 4.9%; and Peru, with 4%, has the highest percentages of the population without access to electricity according to data compiled by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
In terms of homes without this basic service, there is a total of 4.67 million, of which 4.21 million in rural areas, while 462,164 in urban areas. In Central America the total number of families without this coverage reaches 838,574, in the Caribbean it rises to 1.53 million, in Mexico it is 895,899 and in South America it amounts to 1.85 million points.
The IDB estimates that the region would need around $ 13 billion in investment to gain full access. Even so, if the goal of universal access is to be achieved by 2030 and considering the demand associated with population growth, both urban and rural, it is estimated that the investment needs in electricity infrastructure will amount to 25,000 million dollars.
In terms of installed capacity and electricity matrix, it is estimated that 58% of electricity production in Latin America and the Caribbean comes from renewable sources, a percentage which in turn consists of 77% electricity from hydroelectric plants, followed by wind and solar generation, which together add up to 13%, biomass (9%) and geothermal (1%).
The source that has grown the most is solar energy production with an average annual increase of 83%, while wind production has grown by about 45%. The rest of the production methods remain stable at around 1%.
Today the region has an installed capacity of 200 GW. Conversely, the demand for electricity has increased by 72% over the past 20 years. This has made it possible to have an increasingly renewable energy supply that mainly benefits the industrial sector (43%), residential (27%) and commercial consumption and services (21%).
“Increased efforts to mobilize and increase investment are essential to ensure that advances in access to energy continue in developing economies. Currently, providing access to electrical solutions and clean ways of cooking to those who currently do not have access costs $ 40 billion a year, which is about 1% of the average annual investment in the energy sector, “said Fatih Birol. , director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
