Societal Benefits from Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean

This analytical report intends to contribute to a broader knowledge of the benefits associated with the use of non-traditional renewable energy technologies (NRETs) in the power matrix of Latin America and the Caribbean. To this end, it examines to what extent societal benefits − defined as those that accrue to the national economies when shifting away from fossil fuels − are large enough to justify the eventual wholesale entry of NRETs including solar, geothermal and wind. For this purpose, the analysis first makes a comparison of fossil fuel and NRETs on the basis of the levelized costs of electricity (LCOEs), and then proceeds to identify and quantify potential societal benefits of NRET deployment in LAC.