During the first nine months of 2020, imports of electric generators increased year-on-year in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and decreased in Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and El Salvador.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with the graphic"].
In the first three months of 2020, Central American companies bought electric motors and generators abroad for $29 million, 39% less than what was reported for the same period in 2019.
Figures from the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graph"]
The reform proposal to Nicaragua's Energy Stability Law contemplates the elimination of the tax on the purchase and sale of electricity for users who generate their own energy and decide to market their surpluses.
On November 21, the Ortega administration sent to the National Assembly the initiative, which seeks to exonerate from the marketing tax, generators who sell their surplus electricity to Disnorte-Dissur.
Banco Agromercantil de Guatemala announced a $43 million loan for the construction of part of the 54 MW Ventus wind farm to be located in the municipality of Metapán.
The U.S. government approved up to $350 million to finance part of the construction of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) power generation plant EDP in Acajutla, El Salvador.
The U.S. government, through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), approved the financing on March 20, 2019, according to the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.
In Costa Rica, the state-owned electricity company ICE is evaluating the renegotiation of prices and conditions in power purchase contracts with private generation companies.
The adjustments planned by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) in contracts with private generators are based on the need to reduce costs and adapt prices and quantities purchased to current demand conditions and the availability of resources to generate energy.
Because of the increase in energy demand, last year in Guatemala the Electricity Supply and Water Collection sector was the sector that explained the largest increase in the GDP calculation.
Notwithstanding the conflict that has affected the development of several hydroelectric projects, the electricity supply and water collection sector has reported year-on-year increases of more than 4.5% for the 2010-2018 period.
Lack of legal certainty, electricity theft and social conflicts are forcing businessmen in Guatemala's energy sector to choose to relocate their investments to El Salvador.
Last year, the companies Applied Energy Services (AES) and Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI), both US and Guatemalan capital, decided to invest $47 million in solar energy projects, encouraged by the facilities offered to the energy sector in El Salvador.
Due to a group of demonstrators who have taken over the Chixoy hydroelectric facility, there is a risk that in Guatemala electricity service rates will increase by up to 10%.
Since September 25th, a group of people claiming the payment of a complementary compensation has taken over the hydroelectric plant Chixoy, one of the most important in the country, and threatens to set it on fire.
In Panama, Ingenio Alanje plans to invest $50 million in a sugarcane bagasse-based generation plant, with an installed capacity of 34 MW.
The sugar mill that processes 520,000 tons of cane per year is located in the village of El Tejar, district of Alanje, province of Chiriquí, and is planning to construct a biomass-based power plant, which is expected to be operational by the next harvest, in the summer of 2019.
In El Salvador, Energía del Pacifico has announced that it has met the requirements to obtain financing, and that it will start construction of the plant in the third quarter of the year.
The new Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica is opposed to the Diquís project, which the state electricity company has been promoting for ten years, and which consists of building a hydroelectric generation plant in Puntarenas.
While the new leaders of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) announced their intention to refloat the project, which due to unconstitutionality appeals filed against it has remained on paper for years, the Ministry of Environment and Energy has declared its opposition, stating that "... there are no studies or other assessments on the social and economic impact that justify the declaration of national convenience given to the project a decade ago."
Last year, 87 environmental impact studies were submitted in the countries in the region, for the construction of power generation plants and works on electricity networks.
Panama is the country in the region where the largest investment is concentrated, with an approximate $1.29 billion in energy projects, corresponding to 32 environmental impact studies submitted to the Ministry of the Environment between January and December 2017.
The sugar mill union could be investing $160 million in energy generation projects that use ethanol and in the construction of a biomass-based power plant.
Without giving further details, members of the sugar trade union reported that they are planning to build a biomass power generation plant in the short term, which could be the most modern one in Central America.
In Panama, the Supreme Court of Justice has annulled an environmental impact study for a wind farm with 75 wind turbines, which was planned to be built in the Fortuna forest reserve.
Arguing that the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) should have been category III, instead of II, because it is within a protected area, the Third Chamber of the Court for contentious administrative proceedings decided to declare the resolution of 2014, "null for being illegal", a resolution which had approved the EIA submitted by the company Luz Eólica de Panamá.