Brazil and Chile are leading the way to a sunny energy future.

In the last six years, Latin America has imported $26B — or almost twice the GDP of Nicaragua — worth of solar panels from China, the world's leader in producing and selling them.

Brazil has no shortage of clean energy; as we've discussed before, an incredible 86%+ of the country's electricity comes from renewable sources. Much of the achievement can be attributed to Brazil's geographical gifts, such as its abundant rivers and windy coastline.

However, its solar panel trade with China clearly shows the country's efforts to continue leading the world as a green example. Brazil alone accounts for 58% of all Chinese solar panel exports to Latin America, an estimated $14B since 2017, when Ember began reporting this data. Evidently, the region's biggest country would import the most panels, but it does so disproportionately to its size—roughly one-third of LatAm's population.

So, how has the rest of the region fared in embracing a solar future? Chile stands out. It has harnessed its abundant solar rays and has steadily grown to produce more solar energy than Mexico, a country with 6x the population and 2.5x the land. Chile nearly doubled its output from 2020 to 2022.

Mexico was off to a strong solar start — on average, it doubled its yearly generation from 2012 to 2021. But then it slowed down for the first time in 2022, producing slightly less than it did the year before. President AMLO set some rules that limited the development of "megaprojects" led mainly by big foreign corporations according to him. While that may sound all bad, some say it enables smaller, local businesses to serve the country's solar needs. If Chile is ahead of Mexico, that must mean there's still much growth ahead for the country and the possibility for Mexicans to create thriving businesses out of this fast-evolving and exciting industry.

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Brazil Has Been Buying Billions Worth of Solar Panels