The Argentine storage market is growing faster than its customs framework . BESS systems are currently imported as consumer goods, a condition that prevents advance payments to external suppliers and adds a 3% statistical tax.
But according to what Energía Estratégica has learned, the Argentine Chamber of Renewable Energies (CADER) is already working to modify that framework and there is a good predisposition on the part of the Executive Branch to listen to the proposal and resolve it.
The proposal aims to treat batteries and control and power electronics together and recognize them as capital goods.
“What we are trying to see is to find a battery position that reflects everything related to BESS systems,” acknowledged Marcelo Álvarez , president of CADER and member of the Board of Directors and coordinator of the LATAM Task-Force of the Global Solar Council.
The impact on technology brought from abroad is not in the import duty, which remained at zero, but in the financial conditions associated with that classification.
“When something is a consumer good and not a capital good, it has two problems. One, you can't pay an advance to your supplier abroad . And without paying an advance, it's generally complicated and involves the cost of a letter of credit for that company to agree to send the equipment. But that letter of credit has a high cost for a national SME,” Álvarez explained.
In addition, there is another charge. The current classification maintains a statistical rate of 3% of the total , even with a zero tariff; therefore, CADER's solution is concrete: to migrate towards a capital goods classification for the entire system .
“Ideally, we want a tariff position that is a capital good, that allows for advance payment, and that does not have the additional 3% it has today,” Álvarez stated in the interview.
The proposal comes after a strong market signal, considering the results of the AlmaGBA (713 MW awarded) and AlmaSADI (705 MW winners) tenders for stand-alone BESS projects, the latter receiving 235 bids for +8300 MW.
The jump from zero to almost 2 GW in about two years , added to the oversupply registered in AlmaSADI, shows that the limitation is no longer in the interest of the developers, while the composition of the regional business changes.
Even at The Smarter E South America, held in Brazil, energy storage took center stage over modules and inverters , which had historically dominated the exhibition. And for Álvarez, the signal is unequivocal: “ BESS systems are here to stay in the region for several reasons .”
The first is price, since the drop in battery costs opens up niches that “until two or three years ago weren't closed,” such as arbitrage, network services, and hybridization. This dynamic also accelerates competition among Chinese suppliers.
Brazil and Chile currently dominate much of the regional competition, while Argentina is emerging as a new destination . But the driving forces are different.
In Brazil, the problem stems from the very success of renewable energy. The country has 74.3 GW of solar capacity in operation , of which 51.69 GW correspond to distributed micro and mini-generation and 22.62 GW to centralized generation.
During the first three months of 2026, discharges reached 17.2% of all solar and wind power production , up from 15.3% in the same period of the previous year.
Under this scenario, the country's first stand-alone BESS auction registered 296 GW of projects , although the contracting references are between 2 and 5 GW, equivalent to 8 and 20 GWh in four-hour systems.
Chile is further along, with 3,116 MW of storage in operation, 2,686 MW undergoing testing, and 5,217 MW under construction . However, the total portfolio reported by ACERA amounts to 39,739 MW if projects in various stages of environmental permitting are also included.
There, the model responds directly to curtailment and transport restrictions.
“It is cheaper for the owners of these projects to install storage, injecting energy outside of peak generation times when they have better remuneration and transport capacity than at solar midday,” explains the president of CADER.
Argentina is playing a different game. The main driver is not yet the structural excess of renewables, but rather the lack of transmission and distribution capacity and the need to strengthen reliability . Batteries don't replace new grids, but they can mitigate critical situations.
Therefore, AlmaGBA and AlmaSADI haven't closed the discussion. The market still needs a signal to increase the system's reliability and allow the participation of those projects that were excluded from the AlmaSADI call for proposals, for example.
Among them is the Additional Reliability Reserve Service (SerCA) . The scheme is still under definition and could combine public tenders with a logic similar to that of the Renewable Energy Term Market.
The official intention is to incorporate firm capacity with technological neutrality , so it could accommodate thermal power plants, storage, hybrid projects, battery-powered renewables, hydroelectric infrastructure and other solutions.
However, Álvarez argues that the critical point is not which technology is introduced, but which asset it competes against: “You can’t implement SerCA and let an old, fully depreciated machine compete with a new investment. You have to do something that allows for competition between peers.”
“We need to define the playing field, ensuring new power plants compete with other new ones and old projects compete with other old ones. Demand is going to grow, whether in goods, services, industry, or mining (...) and if we simply create a mechanism that is profitable, so that amortized machines continue to sell, we are blocking the entry of new investments, of new, competitive renewable energy offerings,” the president of CADER emphasized.
GSC takes the regional discussion to the Dominican Republic
Meanwhile, the Global Solar Council is working to accelerate solar adoption in Latin American and Caribbean markets with less developed regulations . The first meeting of regional associations was held at Intersolar Brazil, and the second will take place during OLACDE Energy Week in the Dominican Republic.
“I believe that in the Dominican Republic there will be a greater presence from the Caribbean, which are also the institutions that most need the Global Solar Council ,” Álvarez noted, clarifying that the objective is not to copy models from Brazil, Chile or Mexico, but to shorten timelines and learn from them.
“The topics to be addressed are linked to removing barriers, catalyzing the adoption process , and to do that, the main instrument is the comparative study of regulatory frameworks,” he added.
According to the coordinator of the LATAM Task Force, this transfer can avoid mistakes already made by more mature markets: "It's what I believe saves time and money for smaller markets."