Prospects, Analysis, and Plans on Developing a Solar Energy Plant in Guatemala

Overview
Harnessing and developing renewable energy has always been in the forefront of any advanced country these days. With recent news estimating the possible depletion of non-renewable fossil fuels in less than a century, as well as international and state policies aiming for sustainability, many countries around the world has tried looking and developing renewable sources of energy CITATION Sin15 \l 1033 (Singh, 2015). As of today, one of the most teeming sources simply waiting to be harnessed is solar energy. And since harnessing the power of the sun is relatively cheaper than other sources, it presents a great opportunity for companies in terms of increasing their profitability and advancing their social responsibility. In line to this, this brief would outline prospects, analysis, and plans on developing a solar energy plant in Guatemala. It includes the characteristics of the region as a whole, including its physical, geopolitical, and economical, etc. aspects, which could affect the development of these infrastructures in the country.
Problem
Overpopulation and our excessive dependence on energy to fuel, has led to the danger of its depletion in the near future. According to recent studies, “at current rates of production, oil will run out in 53 years, natural gas in 54, and coal in 110” CITATION Sin15 \l 1033 (Singh, 2015). This poses an issue, considering that current energy consumptions have continued to increase rapidly in almost any place around the world. In fact, in the United States alone, 80% of the total energy consumption comes from “petroleum, natural gas, and coal”, suggesting how dependent it is to fossil fuels CITATION USE16 \l 1033 (US Energy Information Administration, 2016). Nevertheless, despite recent advancements in technology when it comes to harnessing renewable energy, each of these types have their own drawbacks. In the case of solar energy, this include the relative lack of efficiency of photovoltaic cells and issues in the presence of cloud cover, to name some.
Opportunities
Geopolitical and Physical
Developing solar energy in Guatemala would be profitable due to the geopolitical and physical climate of the region. On the one hand, the country is located in Central America just South of Mexico. Although the topography of the region is largely composed of mountainous areas, the country’s climate is mainly hot and arid due to its location near the equator. Both the climate and the location of this country are highly preferable for solar power plants as the amount of solar radiation is significantly higher as compared to other regions of the world CITATION Enend \l 1033 (EnergyInformative.Org, n.d.).
On the other hand, Guatemala’s political location is also ideal for the development of solar power infrastructures. It is not a landlocked area, which allows transportation through sea, has a number of river bodies that is needed for the maintenance of solar power plants, and also have a tremendous potential for renewable energy which only has an installed generation capacity of 12GW as of these days CITATION Ren16 \l 1033 (nortonrosefulbright.com, 2018). Compared to other Central American countries like Costa Rica and El Savador, Guatemala’s in...