Ecuador is beginning to send a clear signal to the regional renewable energy market: “It’s time to enter,” asserted Stalin Vaca, country manager for Grupo Sisener Ingenieros. The combination of energy urgency, incipient regulatory liberalization, and the need for new capacity is beginning to reshape a market that until recently remained virtually closed to private investment.
“Where there is crisis, there are opportunities. Necessity creates this emergency and this eagerness for immediate solutions. Business owners need solutions with dates, with concrete deadlines, and they are taking action,” Vaca stated during his participation in the Strategic Energy streaming event “It had to be said, and it was said.”
One of the clearest signs of this change is beginning to emerge in the local business sector. The executive stated that economic groups historically outside the energy business are now moving forward with investments in renewables, either to guarantee supply for their own operations or to capitalize on an opportunity that is beginning to take shape.
The catalyst for this movement is an energy crisis that exposed the structural weaknesses of Ecuador's electrical system. Between October and December 2024, the country experienced nationwide blackouts of up to 14 hours a day, affecting homes, industries, and businesses, in a situation that directly impacted economic activity.
Currently, Ecuador faces a deficit of approximately 1000 MW , while demand continues to grow between 200 and 300 MW per year . But the problem, according to the Sisener representative, goes far beyond a lack of generation.
“It’s a deficit in generation, expansion, and maintenance of the distribution and transmission systems. Millions of dollars in investment are needed to restore the system,” he noted.
However, Ecuador is beginning to attract attention beyond its borders. Dollarization is emerging as one of its main differentiators compared to other Latin American markets, offering a more predictable framework for capital-intensive investments.
“The stability of the currency is very attractive,” Vaca emphasized, noting that this attribute is beginning to tip the scales for international companies considering entering the Ecuadorian market.
In parallel, the government began taking steps to attract private investment in power generation. It launched regulations enabling projects up to 10 MW and others expanding the scheme to include projects between 10 and 100 MW , with tariffs designed to incentivize private capital.
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“The technology that is responding most rapidly is photovoltaics because it is the fastest and most affordable,” Vaca explained. He detailed that there are already between 50 and 60 projects under development , up to 10 MW in capacity, and that the first ones could begin construction toward the end of this year.
Beyond this new regulatory framework, the market was already showing signs of activity in the commercial and industrial segments. Over the past few years, Ecuadorian companies have developed nearly 100 rooftop solar projects for industrial buildings , primarily ranging from 1 to 3 MW , a sign that the productive sector has begun to seek its own solutions to the energy crisis.
Although storage still has low penetration in the country, with only a few isolated cases, the specialist assured that interest is beginning to grow as the market matures.
The next step points to larger-scale projects. “The projects are just beginning, they are still in the planning stages; the first concession has not yet been granted,” Vaca clarified. He explained that these initiatives are in the preliminary stages of studies and administrative procedures, so the first projects would only begin to materialize during the second half of 2026 .
Sisener accompanies the landing in a market under construction
In this context, specialized companies are beginning to position themselves to support the development of Ecuador's new renewable energy market. One of them is Grupo Sisener Ingenieros, a Spanish firm already involved in the early stages of project structuring in the country.
“We help identify projects, conduct initial studies, and even assist with some procedures,” explained Vaca. The company has a presence in markets such as Spain, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile, and a team of approximately 300 professionals with experience in technologies such as solar photovoltaics, wind power, hydroelectric power, thermal energy, and hydrogen.
From that international experience, the executive believes that Ecuador even has a strategic advantage: arriving later allows it to observe others' mistakes and accelerate its learning curve.
“We are learning faster because we have examples from other countries,” the executive said, noting that the Ecuadorian market can draw on previous experiences in countries like Peru, Chile, or Colombia to avoid regulatory, commercial, and technological errors.
In a business where the difference often lies in anticipating, the message from the private sector is clear: the window of opportunity has already begun to open.
With this scenario unfolding, the upcoming Future Energy Summit (FES) events in Guatemala on May 14 and Mexico on May 19 could serve as a barometer to gauge the extent to which Ecuador is beginning to attract the interest of international developers, manufacturers, and investment funds. More than 500 executives from the public and private sectors will participate in these meetings.