What factors explain the success of regulatory regimes in attracting investment for the deployment of wind energy projects? : a comparative analysis of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay = (¿Qué factores explican el éxito de un marco regulatorio para atraer inversión en proyectos de energía eólica? : una análisis comparativo de Argentina, Chile y Uruguay).

Abstract

Academic literature of renewable energy law and policy has so far mainly concentrated on the U.S., Europe and China. This paper looks to bring focus to Latin America through a comparative analysis of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. It looks to provide a comprehensive description of the renewable energy policies and regulations in the three selected jurisdictions and the results of performance in attracting investment for wind energy projects. Wind energy is the most mature non-conventional renewable energy technology and is among the renewable energy technologies with greatest potential for future development. Successful deployment of wind energy and other renewable energy technologies is largely determined by a policy’s ability to foster investment from the private sector. Policy – especially in a highly regulated sector like electricity – is embodied in legislation and other regulatory measures. Therefore, this paper concentrates on reviewing such legislation and regulation in order to understand its efficacy. An analysis of the results suggests that Argentina’s failure in attracting significant investment for wind energy technology is due in large part to poor investment certainty and to more general failures of the electricity regime. However, these factors alone do not explain the results observed in Chile vis-à-vis Uruguay. Rather, in this case, and analysis of the results suggests that the variation in performance is due to the ability of the specific regulatory framework to address a wide scale of issues that are considered by investors when making capital-commitment decisions.