Record 363 MW of solar power added in Latin America

Latin America added a record 363 MW of new utility-scale solar power online in the second quarter of 2015, and project construction was up 61 per cent on 2014, according to a new report published on Tuesday.

GTM Research, the market analysis firm, published the Q2 2015 Latin America PV Playbook this week which shows that new-online figures were up 80 per cent on last year with construction figures up by 61 per cent.

From April to June this year, a total of 363 MW of newly operational utility-scale solar photovoltaic was brought online across the Latin American region — the largest quarter ever in the history of the Latin America utility-scale solar market.

Honduras installed a striking 307 MW across 7 separate projects in the second quarter and the research by GTM Research suggested that Honduras’ bonus tariff of 10 per cent over the marginal cost for projects connected by the end of July was the main reason for the high rate of added capacity.

Chile was ranked second by GTM Research with 29 MW brought online in the same period.

Panama and Brazil followed in third and fourth place respectively, installing 12 MW and 11 MW in the second quarter.

GTM Research also found that Venezuela and Antigua both connected their first utility-scale solar PV plants in the April to June period.

New construction of utility-scale solar power projects for the period also increased, with 981 MW of solar capacity entering the construction phase.

The majority of the new construction is taking place in Chile with Mexico in the process of constructing 54 MW of solar power projects, while Jamaica has 20 MW under construction.

GTM Research estimates that utility-scale solar PV will make up 92 per cent of Latin America’s forecasted 2.3 GW of solar installations in 2015.