Latin America is one of the most promising renewable energy markets for Enel Green Power, which plans to invest more than 2 billion Euros by 2016 for the development of renewable energy in the region.
Latin America is a rapidly expanding market, where it is expected that energy demand will have an average annual growth of 3.5% by 2020.
To meet this growing demand, "renewables will play an important role and we have about 830 MW of renewable capacity in operation, capable of producing over 3.4 million kilowatt hours of energy with zero emissions," said Enel Green Power (EGP)’s area manager for Iberia and Latin America Maurizio Bezzeccheri in a recent interview.
Enel Green Power says there is room to diversify sources of energy in Central America .
Representatives of the company, which has presence in Brazil, Mexico and Chile, have shown interested in developing geothermal projects in Guatemala, where they are diversifying the development of energy sources.
Legal stability, foreign investment protection and a business friendly environment are the elements that companies such as Enel are looking for in order to bring their business to Central America.
Costa Rica-based Grupo Saret aims to become one of the leading players in electricity generation in Central America.
Saret aims to seek a partner with experience in the industry so it can compete with companies such as Enel of Italy and Spain's Unión Fenosa.
Already it has plans to build several plants in southern Costa Rica, as well as in northern Panama and Nicaragua.