Description

El Salvador scores 1.12 in Climatescope 2014, finishing 27th overall and 12th among its Latin American peers. The country’s score was boosted by clean energy’s considerable participation in the country’s grid, high local power prices and the growth in clean energy investment, both for large- and micro-scale capacity development.

Renewables play a key role in El Salvador’s matrix with geothermal and biomass projects currently providing the most clean generation. However, it is solar that is poised to become the flagship technology. In 2013, El Salvador saw $51m invested in one pilot photovoltaic power plant. Another 94MW of capacity was contracted in 2013 through the country’s first renewable energy supply contracts tender and is expected online in the next two years.

El Salvador has the highest retail electricity tariffs in Central America, at an average of $0.23/kWh. Given these prices, distributed renewable generation could be a cost-competitive alternative to reduce electricity bills. The government is expected to develop a net metering policy in the next year or two that could spur distributed capacity in the country.