Colombia seeks EU help in RE advancement: Colombia’s Minister of Mines and Energy Edwin Palma plans to raise nearly €50 billion in investments from European renewable energy companies for clean energy development in the country. He seeks this support to help inject 6 GW of clean energy into the National Interconnected System (SIN) under the 6GW Plus strategy. To achieve this, he plans to meet with more than 170 European Union (EU) companies and understand their concerns about the country’s energy transition challenges. He said his government’s goal is to attract investment in green energy, particularly from the EU, with an expected 35 GW in solar, wind, and green hydrogen. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, Colombia’s total renewable energy installed capacity stood at over 15 GW at the end of 2024, comprising 1.4 GW solar PV.
“There is a political decision, under the direction of the President, to remove obstacles surrounding environmental licensing for clean energy generation projects under 100 megawatts,” stated Palma while addressing a recent Colombo-German energy event.
432 MW Brazilian solar project online: Newave Energia has commissioned the 432 MW Arinos Solar Park in Brazil’s Minas Gerais. Equipped with over 720,000 solar panels, this BRL 1.5 billion project is supported by a corporate power purchase agreement with steel producer Gerdau for some of its capacity. The remaining generation will be open to about 1,000 companies in the wholesale market, stated the company. The project was inaugurated by Brazil’s Vice President and Minister of Development, Geraldo Alckmin.
Community solar projects in Chile: Chile’s Araucanía region has selected 7 municipalities under a Ministry of Energy-backed Community Solar Park competition. It will allow for the development of 59 distributed generation projects to support the region’s electricity demand with clean energy that can lower costs for the consumers. Among the beneficiary municipalities are Villarrica, Temuco, Lumaco, Pucón, Gorbea, Loncoche, and Padre Las Casas. These will have a community solar park located just 2 km from the city center. This model is inspired by the pilot project in Talagante, where a 300 kW PV system has been generating annual savings of $50 million for the community. Selected municipalities will get technical assistance to design and implement these projects between June 2025 and February 2026.
Solar carport in Chile: Chilean pork producer Coexca recently inaugurated what is the largest solar carport in Chile. Built by Solarity, the project has come up at the company’s processing plant in the Maule commune with more than 1,700 solar panels installed. These represent a combined 1.075 MW installed capacity that will feed energy generated by the carport directly into the company’s industrial operations on site.