Clean energy investment in non-Brazil Latin America totaled $4.7 billion in 2012, a 127% increase from 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while total clean energy investment in Latin America, including Brazil, reached $9.7 billion. With the dramatic growth in investment in non-Brazil Latin America, the region was a leader in a year when global clean energy investment declined 11%. (More on global trends here.)

The most growth occurred in Mexico ($1.9 billion, up 595%), Chile ($1 billion, up 313%), Uruguay ($105 million, up 285%), and Peru ($643 million, up 176%). The investment totals include investments in energy generation technologies and biofuels.

The investment growth in non-Brazil Latin America was "driven by increased activity by the Inter-American Development Bank,” said Maria Gabriela da Rocha Oliveira, Head of Latin America Research and Analysis at BNEF, in an ACORE press release. “Additionally, European players, both project developers and manufacturers, have become more active in the region given grim conditions at home.”

Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, attracted the most capital in the region, $5.17 billion, but this figure represents a significant decline from the $7.8 billion invested in Brazil in 2011. This decline is reportedly due in part to the funding disbursement cycles of the development banks that provide the majority of asset finance in the region.

The Americas region is expected to add nearly 92GW of new wind power capacity from 2013 to 2020, but the rate of growth will differ dramatically between North America and Latin America, according to a new report by MAKE Consulting. "The real opportunity over the next eight years will be in Latin America," states the report. MAKE forecasts a 20 percent compounded annual growth rate in Latin America and projects that, for the first time, the majority of new wind capacity in the Americas will occur outside of the U.S. market. The report also projects that the U.S. and Brazil markets will together account for over 26GW of installations in 2013-2016, with a bubble year expected in 2014.

Driven by the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, wind installations in the Americas grew by more than 12% in 2012, compared with 2011, according to Navigant Research's World Wind Market Update. The American continent captured more than 35% of the global wind market in 2012.

Latin America holds some of the world’s richest geothermal resources, with total potential estimated at 35,500 megawatts (MW), according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. A significant portion of this is concentrated in the Andean sub-region, consisting of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, all with vast potential yet limited development in geothermal energy.