Key results - Latin America

Moving from principles to action for energy supply that mitigates against climate change requires a long-term perspective. Energy infrastructure takes time to build up; new energy technologies take time to develop. Policy shifts often also need many years to take effect. In most world regions the transformation from fossil to renewable energies will require additional investment and higher supply costs over about twenty years

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regional results latin america heating supply

heating supply

Renewables currently provide 38% of Latin America’s energy demand for heat supply, the main contribution coming from the use of biomass. The lack of district heating networks is a severe structural barrier to the large scale utilisation of geothermal and solar thermal energy. In the Energy [R]evolution scenario, renewables provide 67% of Latin America’s total heat demand in 2030 and 97% in 2050.

Energy efficiency measures can restrict the future primary energy demand for heat supply to a 29% increase, in spite of improving living standards.
In the industry sector solar collectors, biomass/biogas as well as geothermal energy are increasingly replacing conventional fossil fuelled heating systems.
A shift from coal and oil to natural gas in the remaining conventional applications leads to a further reduction of CO2 emissions.

In the Energy [R]evolution scenario about 2,370 PJ/a are saved by 2050, or 25% compared to the Reference scenario.

Table 5.14 shows the development of the different renewable technologies for heating in Latin America over time. Biomass will remain the main contributor for renewable heat. After 2020, the continuing growth of solar collectors and a growing share of geothermal heat (including heat pumps) will reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.