- On October 14, 2026, LACEC held the first session of its webinar series on energy storage in Latin America.
- The event brought together experts from OLACDE, Brazil and Chile to analyze the state of the market, regulatory barriers, and the conditions needed to attract investment in storage projects.
- Key takeaways: installed battery storage capacity in the region doubled in one year; markets must recognize and remunerate the services storage provides; and each country must tailor its regulation to its own flexibility needs.
BOGOTÁ, D.C., October 14, 2026. Storing energy when sun or wind is abundant and using it when it is most needed can help make better use of renewable sources. In Latin America and the Caribbean, storage is becoming established as a tool to meet the flexibility needs of power systems. The next challenge is to create the conditions for that potential to translate into projects that can attract investment and deliver reliable services.
Market growth requires answering concrete questions: what each system needs, where projects should be located, how they will connect to the grid, and how the services they provide will be remunerated. These decisions are essential for storage to help integrate renewable energy and respond to changes in electricity supply and demand.
With this focus, LACEC, the Latin America Clean Energy Coalition — driven by the WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition, the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA), the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), and Climate Group’s RE100 initiative — held a webinar on the landscape of the emerging energy storage market in Latin America. The session was the first in a series of three. It brought together perspectives from the Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization (OLACDE), Brazil and Chile to identify progress, barriers, and lessons that can inform decisions in other markets across the region.
Watch the full session on the energy storage landscape in Latin America and the experiences of Brazil and Chile:
A Growing Region with Different Needs
José Medardo Cadena, Advisor to the Executive Secretary of OLACDE, presented data showing that installed battery storage capacity rose from about 1.68 gigawatts (GW) in June 2025 to nearly 3.4 GW in June 2026. Chile leads this growth, while other countries are moving forward with projects, auctions, and changes to their regulatory frameworks.
This growth is taking place in power systems that must manage a rising share of solar and wind generation. Their output varies throughout the day and with weather conditions, so system operators need tools to keep supply and demand in balance. In this context, storage can absorb surplus energy and deliver it at other times.
Cadena noted that batteries are only one of the options for providing system flexibility. Hydropower reservoirs, demand-side management, transmission networks, and cross-border interconnections also play a role. For this reason, any decision to add storage should start from an assessment of system needs and the alternatives available.
“We can’t rush blindly into adding storage systems, thinking that the more storage we add, the better it is for the systems. That isn’t necessarily true,” he said. His recommendation was to first identify the need, then determine the value the solution would bring, and finally assess the revenues that would make it possible to finance it.
Recognizing Services to Mobilize Investment
Storage can do much more than shift energy from one hour to another. It can also respond quickly to changes in the system, support frequency regulation, and help meet periods of peak system stress. However, the fact that a technology can provide these services does not mean there is a mechanism to remunerate them.
One of the main conclusions was that markets must recognize these functions and set clear conditions for their remuneration. Clear conditions allow project developers and financiers to assess potential revenues, operating costs, and the risks they will take on over the long term.
Risk allocation also matters. Cadena explained that a project should not bear risks it cannot control, such as those related to transmission constraints. “Regulation has to ensure that risks are allocated to whoever is able to manage them,” he said.
Sebastián Arbeláez, Energy Specialist at WRI Colombia, led an interactive poll during the webinar to gauge how participants viewed the conditions for developing storage projects in their countries. The poll covered the regulatory environment, investment barriers, and the measures that have enabled progress in each market.
Responses highlighted two related challenges. The first is access to financing and high upfront investment costs. The second is the need for regulatory frameworks that make clear how services will be remunerated. These results reinforced one of the presentations’ key messages: to scale up storage, projects need conditions that allow them to recover their investment and anticipate how they will earn revenue during operation.
Brazil Seeks to Expand the Market and Reduce Barriers
Isabella Sene, of the Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association (ABSOLAR), described a power system in transition, in which consumers can also produce energy and play a more active role. In this scenario, storage opens up new ways to manage generation and consumption and make better use of available resources.
The ABSOLAR representative highlighted the need to invest in solutions that reduce wasted energy. She explained that battery auctions are an opportunity to consolidate the Brazilian market and send a signal to those considering developing projects.
However, falling battery costs alone do not remove the barriers to investment. Sene pointed to the tax burden, the lack of incentives, and pending regulatory issues as factors affecting the development of these solutions.
Her presentation also showed that procurement mechanisms must be designed with projects’ operating conditions in mind. Rules on authorization, grid connection, and charging and discharging are among the technical considerations that market participants need to understand. Brazil’s experience therefore offers insights into how to combine procurement instruments with conditions that make implementation easier.
Chile Shows the Importance of Planning and Anticipating Change
Iván Saavedra, former Head of Electricity at Chile’s National Energy Commission (CNE), offered a practical reading of the decisions that have driven progress in the country and the challenges that come with the growth of storage. He explained that the value a battery provides to the system does not automatically become revenue for its owner.
In Chile, abundant solar generation during certain hours creates price differences that can be captured by storing energy and delivering it later. This practice, known as energy arbitrage, is a source of revenue. However, those margins can shrink as more batteries charge and discharge at similar times.
Saavedra also distinguished between projects that are announced or declared under construction and those that actually enter into service. Reducing difficulties with permitting, grid connection, and commissioning is part of the work needed for the expected expansion to become available capacity.
“It’s not just about installing batteries, but about turning flexibility into a reliable service and a sustainable investment,” he said. The Chilean case offers concrete experience, but each country must adapt these lessons to the characteristics of its own market and energy resources.
Cross-Country Learning to Scale Up Projects
In closing, Francisco Boshell (WRI Global Lead, Decarbonized Energy Consumption Pillar) noted that progress across the region is uneven and that this diversity creates opportunities to share lessons. “There are great opportunities for learning among the countries of the region,” he said as he summarized the conclusions from the presentations.
Auctions were one of the examples discussed. Their results offer lessons on how to design mechanisms that respond to each country’s needs, including capacity availability during critical hours. The discussion also underscored the importance of diversifying revenue streams beyond energy arbitrage and of establishing mechanisms to measure and verify the services delivered.
With more than 30 organizations involved, the coalition will move forward with launching national working groups in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as a regional working group. These groups will make it possible to share experiences, identify barriers, and set priorities on both energy storage and renewable energy procurement by industry and large energy users.
LACEC will prepare a roadmap to guide its national and regional activities. The goal is to develop knowledge products, tools, and resources that help turn lessons learned into concrete decisions and projects to accelerate the adoption of clean energy.