In Panama, the 18 photovoltaic generation plants that together have an installed capacity of 143 MW, are still waiting for the government to grant new contracts.

According to statistics from the National Energy Secretariat, last year the country had an installed generation capacity of 3,423 MW, of which 4% corresponded to solar energy parks. 

Several of these plants were developed by entrepreneurs who decided to take advantage of the incentives for construction and operation that were first provided with approval of a law in 2016.

However, since the Panamanian government has not introduced new contracts for the purchase of solar energy since 2014 , ” … companies that have invested in solar generation plants to sell energy to distributors are living in uncertainty because they have not called for new tenders to contract energy using this kind of technology.“

See “Central America: $1.6 billion in Energy Projects“

The article adds that “ … It is not known if Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica, S.A. (Etesa), which organizes the tenders, is planning to tender energy purchases in which photovoltaic generation companies could participate.“

See also “Electricity works for $12 million“

In relation to tenders in the energy sector, at the beginning of the year Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica reported that it would be considering not carrying out any more specialist tenders for generators using renewable resources, instead that these would have to compete with all types of generators.