Description

Paraguay finished 50th in Climatescope, scoring 0.59. Among its 26 Latin American and Caribbean peers, the country ranked 22nd.

Paraguay, which is heavily reliant on large-hydro resources, was hurt by the fact that the Climatescope methodology only takes into account hydro resources up to 50MW in size.

A land locked country, Paraguay is spanned by two large rivers: the Paraguay and the Paraná. These waterways not only provide an exit to the Atlantic Ocean, but also represent an immense hydroelectric resource. Despite its population of just seven million, Paraguay has 8.8GW generating capacity. By comparison, Peru has four times more citizens, but just 9% more capacity.

As a result, Paraguay exports most of the power it generates to neighbors Argentina and Brazil. Currently, non-hydro renewables generally make very little economic sense in Paraguay, given excess local hydro generation and low power prices (retail rates average $0.07/kWh). The exception may be in the semi-arid and lower population Chaco region, which has limited access to the country’s transmission network.