State of Charge: Energy Storage in Latin America and the
Energy storage can bring many benefits to electricity systems, including enhanced grid reliability, efficiency, and flexibility. It will also be a key enabler of mass decarbonization
Energy storage can bring many benefits to electricity systems, including enhanced grid reliability, efficiency, and flexibility. It will also be a key enabler of mass decarbonization
The energy storage systems market in Latin America is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$ 3,486.5 million by 2030. A compound annual growth rate of 9.4% is expected of Latin
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It will also be a key enabler of mass decarbonization and climate change mitigation, facilitating the expansion of variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar while ensuring grid security. However, energy storage deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is still nascent.
Pumped hydro is the most widespread form of energy storage worldwide, but despite the abundance of hydroelectric power in use in Latin America, this technology has not been deployed in most of the region. Argentina is an exception, home to two pumped hydro storage facilities with combined capacity of almost 1 GW since the 1980s.
Panama made history with its 2024 tender for 500 MW of renewables plus storage, aiming for 120–150 MW of BESS deployment. This represents the first market-based approach to energy storage in Central America, potentially serving as a model for the region.
Other technologies, such as molten salt thermal energy storage paired with concentrated solar power generation, or compressed air energy storage, could be deployed in specific contexts. Hydrogen storage is likely poised for a larger role down the line as the technology matures. Figure 1: Annual Energy Storage Deployment, 2016-2019 (GW)