Valentina Meneses
Energy Practice Co-Director
AMI
Capturing the sun and wind is no longer the challenge.
Latin America is experiencing an energy paradox. In recent years, nearly 60% of the new electrical capacity installed in the region came from renewable sources, and projections indicate that by 2050 more than 85% of electricity will be from renewable sources.
Here’s the problem: this accelerated transformation has exposed a structural weakness: the region continues to generate clean energy that it cannot always use when it needs it most.
This is where energy storage ceases to be a technological promise and becomes a strategic decision. The BESS market in Latin America generated around US$680 million in revenue in 2023 and, if regulatory conditions allow, could exceed US$5.9 billion by 2030, with growth rates close to 36% per year.
It’s a great opportunity… if you know how to leverage it.
We’ll explain why acquiring that knowledge isn’t easy, why it’s hard to profit from BESS without it—and one simple way you can achieve this in your market of focus.
Breaking Down LatAm BESS Opportunities (and Obstacles) in Key Markets
There is no single storage market in Latin America. What exists is a mosaic of realities advancing at very different speeds, defined more by regulation, market design, and price signals than by technological maturity.
Chile is currently the clearest example of maturity. It has defined rules, recognition of storage as a system asset, and remuneration schemes that allow for the structuring of bankable projects. It is no coincidence that it has more than 1,000 MW of installed BESS and a pipeline exceeding 4.8 GW. In Chile, the issue isn’t whether storage works—it’s how to capture value and scale without losing competitiveness.
Brazil, on the other hand, represents the other extreme of the dilemma. It is the market with the greatest potential for scale—projections point to more than 18 GW of storage by 2040—but with regulations still under development. While the framework is being defined, the private sector is moving forward: models such as storage as a service and behind-the-meter solutions are growing because the demand for flexibility is immediate. The market size is enormous, but timing remains the critical variable.
Mexico is somewhere in between. It has defined connection rules and requirements for intermittent renewable projects that incorporate storage, but there is still a lack of clarity on how this value is remunerated. The economic upside exists, but the structuring of regulatory risk defines the real viability of projects.
Beyond these focal points, there are markets that seem secondary from the outside, but which offer great potential from the inside. Argentina surprised with the AlmaGBA tender, which awarded more than 650 MW of storage at competitive prices, although the challenge now is to transform that specific scheme into a general rule. Panama, despite its size, managed to integrate storage into the wholesale market and allow revenue for firm power, demonstrating that regulatory clarity can weigh as much as scale.
Peru, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic are still building their frameworks. In these countries, storage is legally recognized, but there is no clarity on how its systemic value is remunerated. This slows down projects in the short term, but it also opens up opportunities for those who know how to read the context and enter with well-calibrated expectations.
The Real Bottleneck in BESS Projects in LatAm
Something we often repeat in our conversations with customers is that the main bottleneck is not technological. Batteries are already competitive, scalable, and proven. The real challenge lies in how each country recognizes, remunerates, and prioritizes storage within its electricity system.
Chile and Panama are making progress because storage has a clear role to play. Colombia is advancing more slowly because, although it is recognized, there is still no clear scheme for monetizing it beyond spot arbitrage. Brazil is advancing despite regulation, not because of it. From the outside, these markets may seem similar; from the inside, the differences are profound and decisive.
Furthermore, in many cases, the market is ahead of regulation. In the Peruvian Amazon, solar microgrids with batteries are already reducing dependence on diesel. In Brazil, businesses and industries have access to storage without initial CAPEX, paying only for the service. In Colombia, the first hybrid projects are beginning to set precedents that will likely influence future regulation.
Who Benefits from Storage Today?
Each player faces different decisions and risks when it comes to energy storage:
- Investors and infrastructure funds, who need to understand where risk is being offset by return and where it is better to wait.
- Renewable developers, for whom storage is no longer optional, but a variable that defines the viability of the project.
- Utilities and large consumers, who seek resilience, flexibility, and cost control, but do not always know how to structure the business case.
- Technology and service providers, who want to grow in the region and need to prioritize markets judiciously.
Why Market Intelligence Is Key for BESS Success
In the energy storage market in Latin America, the difference lies not in seeing the opportunity, but in understanding what is really happening on the ground—in a specific market. In some countries, regulations exist but are not enforced. In others, there are remuneration models that only work on paper and local risks that can only be detected by talking to those who design, finance, and execute projects.
Not knowing strategic data and nuances of BESS in specific LatAm countries can result in substantial losses.
That’s where Americas Market Intelligence’s market intelligence comes in. We conduct primary field research and data triangulation while gathering field intelligence from each country’s leading regulators, utilities, developers, and active investors in each country.
After unearthing hard-to-find data, we apply analysis to turn them into insights, then use those insights to give you clear direction as to what to do next with BESS in whatever LatAm market is of interest to your company.
Next Steps
Contact an AMI expert today to learn how market intelligence can help boost your ROI with BESS.
We apply our own approach: Grow, Measure, Protect. The goal is not to describe the market, but to help you make better decisions about where, when, and how to invest.
GROW. AMI helps its clients prioritize and scale BESS opportunities at the country and subregional levels.
- Identification of markets with the greatest need for flexibility, backup, and energy arbitrage.
- Evaluation of the energy project pipeline and its impact on storage demand.
- Support for market entry strategies, partnerships, and commercial positioning in Latin America.
MEASURE. AMI combines primary regional research with proprietary models to measure the true potential of the BESS market.
- BESS market sizing and forecasting by country, technology, and application.
- Economic feasibility analysis: CAPEX/OPEX and regulatory sensitivity.
- Assessment of future storage demand under different renewable penetration scenarios.
PROTECT. AMI helps its clients protect investments and strategic decisions.
- Competitive intelligence on local and international players in BESS.
- Regulatory and macroeconomic risk analysis by country.
- Stress scenarios on energy prices, regulatory changes, and infrastructure delays.
- Assessment of technological, contractual, and supply chain risks.
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