Electricity in Argentina - statistics & facts

While hydropower makes up the largest amount of electricity generated in Latin America overall, the power sector of Argentina mainly relies on fossil fuels. Natural gas is the primary source of electricity in the country. On the other hand, the share of electricity generated from renewables has increased almost tenfold between 2015 and 2022. Argentina is also one of the few Latin American countries with a nuclear power sector, together with Brazil and Mexico, although this energy source accounts for only five percent of the power mix of the country.

Energy transition in Argentina

Argentina’s electricity consumption has tripled in only 15 years in comparison to the beginning of the century and, after the Paris Agreement, the country has started to tackle energy transition policies and energy efficiency measures to reduce its power demand and invest in clean energy technologies. Dating back to 2015, Law No. 27.191 establishes that 20 percent of the country’s power demand should be covered by wind, sun, biomass, biofuels, and small hydropower plants by 2025. Within this context, the RenovAr program awarded several projects to private power producers to increase the renewable energy capacity of the country for a total of 2.4 gigawatts, attracting foreign investors. Since RenovAr was launched in 2016, privates were issued Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to supply Argentina’s power grid with clean energy for the next 20 years. PPAs were funded by the FODER (Fondo Fiduciario para el Desarrollo de Energías Renovables) to which the Argentinian state and the World Bank contributed. However, by the beginning of 2022, it was announced that around one-third of the projects awarded during RenovAr could not be carried out and their PPAs were terminated.

Fossil fuels and Argentina’s power market

As with the renewable energy sector, Argentina’s gas and oil market calls for new investments and reforms. In fact, this country accounts for the highest natural gas production among Latin American countries, but the country’s gas distribution pipeline does not adequately connect production sites and urbanized areas. Moreover, Argentina has one of the largest shale oil and gas reserves in the world – Vaca Muerta. Although new extraction projects are planned in the basin for the next few years, the potential of the country’s oil reserves is still only marginally exploited. In 2022, the domestic supply of fossil fuels did not meet the country’s demand and its power sector was still dependent on imports from neighboring countries. Despite the increasing inflation, Argentina was the South American country with the least expensive electricity for residential consumers and commercial activities.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Jan 10, 2024

Key insights

Natural gas power generation
80.4 TWh
Share of electricity generated from hydropower
18.2%
Renewable energy generation capacity
15.1 GW
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Electricity consumption in Argentina from 2000 to 2021 (in terawatt-hours)

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Electricity generation in Argentina from 2017 to 2022, by fuel type (in terawatt-hours)

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Electricity generation in Argentina 2017-2022, by source

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