Across the Caribbean, people have installed roughly twice as many solar panels as official statistics would suggest. That is the finding of a new report, which calls on countries to make it easier for new solar installations to connect to the grid.
China, the biggest manufacturer of solar globally, has exported far more panels to the Caribbean than have officially been installed. An analysis of customs data by energy think tank Ember suggests the region had installed 2.3 gigawatts of solar between 2021 and 2024. And yet only about half of that was included in official tallies of power capacity.
In countries from Pakistan to Nigeria to Cuba, people hit by rising fuel prices are turning to solar. By and large, households and businesses install rooftop arrays that are not connected to the central power system. That means their surplus energy is going to waste instead of being sold back to the grid.
In the Caribbean, energy shocks are particularly pronounced as island nations with little in the way of fossil fuel reserves are heavily dependent on imports. Across the region more than 90 percent of electricity is generated using fossil fuels, mostly imported oil and gas. As a result, electricity in the region is among the most expensive in the world.
Renewable energy offers a cheaper alternative, and yet the nascent solar buildout has yet to yield real gains for Caribbean states. Analysts say reforms are needed to speed installations of solar and bring them onto the grid. For instance, in several countries utilities can effectively block competing power sources, including solar installations, from connecting to the power grid. Analysts say that regulators, not power utilities, should decide which power sources can connect.
“Secure, affordable energy is within reach for the Caribbean,” said Wilmar Suárez, senior energy analyst for Latin America at Ember. “Leaders who act decisively will position their countries at the forefront of this historic opportunity.”
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