Brazil, Chile among top 10 renewable investment destinations

Two Latin American countries cracked the top 10 in the September edition of the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index put out by Ernst & Young.

Brazil improved to eighth place overall from its previous ranking of ninth, while Chile moved to ninth from 11^th on the list, which ranks the top 40 countries in the world in terms of attractiveness for investment in renewables.

Brazil ranked second globally for hydropower, third for biomass and fifth for onshore wind. Chile ranked second for CSP solar, fourth for PV solar and eighth for geothermal.

About Chile and Brazil, the report said that, "high capacity factors, the need to displace expensive diesel-fired power and structured competitive bidding regimes continue to make renewables a cost-competitive proposition backed by strong government support."

The report cited reforms to Chile's regulated market power auction system allowing intermittent renewable sources to compete against conventional generators as helping to drive down average energy prices in recent months.

Despite entering its worst recession in 25 years and the weakening of the real by 50% against the dollar in 2015 alone, Brazil has attracted 39GW of applications for a wind and solar power supply tender scheduled for November, the report said.

The government in August announced plans to invest US$53bn in new generation and transmission infrastructure projects by the end of 2018, increasing generating capacity by 25-31GW.

This total will include approximately 6GW of wind and 3.5GW of PV solar capacity, the report said.

Mexico and Peru each moved up one spot in the ranking as well, improving to 19^th place and 27^th, respectively.