Guatemala took a decisive step in Central America’s energy transition by unveiling its national energy roadmap to 2040 at SER 2026, a summit organised by the Asociación de Generadores con Energía Renovable (AGER). The event also marked a regional milestone: the formal launch of ARCA, the first alliance bringing together renewable energy associations from Central America and the Caribbean.

The roadmap sets out how Guatemala plans to reach 80% renewable electricity generation by 2035, add 1,000 MW of new clean capacity and achieve universal electricity access in rural areas by 2032. It also outlines a comprehensive modernisation of the power system, with a strong focus on transmission infrastructure, energy storage and green finance.

Alongside the national plan, the creation of ARCA—bringing together Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic—opens the door to deeper technical, regulatory and financial coordination at a time when regional power demand is rising rapidly and climate commitments require structural responses.

“This roadmap is not just another diagnostic. It is a concrete agenda to execute a transformation we have been postponing for years,” said Alfonso González, President of AGER, during the opening session.

The strategy is structured around three implementation phases:

• Preparation (2026–2030): regulatory reforms, design of financing schemes and new renewable energy tenders.

• Transformation (2031–2035): major infrastructure build-out, large-scale integration of renewables and accelerated rural electrification.

• Consolidation (2036–2040): deployment of energy storage technologies, introduction of energy-sector-linked carbon credits and resilience mechanisms to address extreme climate events.

Battery energy storage systems are identified as a critical enabler to support higher shares of variable renewable energy, improve grid stability and reduce congestion across the transmission network.

The roadmap is built around five core pillars: expansion of renewable generation, transmission network development, universal access, energy efficiency and institutional strengthening. It also calls for market-based mechanisms, greater regulatory certainty and stronger inter-institutional coordination as key conditions for successful implementation.

Both the national roadmap and the regional alliance come at a critical moment. Guatemala has yet to exploit around 88% of its renewable energy potential, while already facing constraints in its electricity system due to limited planning and underinvestment in infrastructure.

From a regional perspective, ARCA aims to align technical and regulatory agendas, potentially enabling coordinated auctions, harmonised standards and improved access to multilateral financing at scale.

“The region needed a more formal and strategic cooperation architecture. Today, that architecture exists—and it is called ARCA,” said Astrid Perdomo, Executive Director of AGER.

SER 2026 also featured international speakers reinforcing the sense of urgency and opportunity. Diego Mesa Puyo, former Energy Minister of Colombia, argued that the energy sector must move from a reactive to a forward-looking approach. From Siemens, Patrice Rimond highlighted advances in grid digitalisation, while Christopher Barry of Linea Energy presented a large-scale case study on integrating solar PV into industrial processes.

Meanwhile, Gisela Sánchez, Executive President of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), warned that the energy transition without investment remains only rhetoric, urging governments and developers to prioritise bankable projects with tangible territorial impact.

The two major announcements—the national roadmap and the regional alliance—left a clear conclusion at SER 2026: the energy transition in Central America has moved beyond technical debate and is now an urgent political and economic decision.

“Moving from diagnosis to execution is not optional. It is the only path forward,” Perdomo concluded.