Renewable Solar Energy Facilities in South America—The Road to a Low-Carbon Sustainable Energy Matrix: A Systematic Review

Abstract

South America is a place on the planet that stands out with enormous potential linked to renewable energies. Countries in this region have developed private investment projects to carry out an energy transition from fossil energies to clean energies and contribute to climate change mitigation. The sun resource is one of the more abundant sources of renewable energies that stands out in South America, especially in the Atacama Desert. In this context, South American countries are developing sustainable actions/strategies linked to implementing solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities and achieving carbon neutrality for the year 2050. As a result, this systematic review presents the progress, new trends, and the road to a sustainable paradigm with disruptive innovations like artificial intelligence, robots, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for solar energy facilities in the region. According to the findings, solar energy infrastructure was applied in South America during the global climate change crisis era. Different levels of implementation in solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities have been reached in each country, with the region being a worldwide research and development (R&D) hotspot. Also, high potential exists for concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities considering the technology evolution, and for the implementation of the hybridization of solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities with onshore wind farm infrastructures, decreasing the capital/operation costs of the projects. Finally, synergy between solar energy infrastructures with emerging technologies linked with low-carbon economies like battery energy storage systems (BESSs) and the use of floating solar PV plants looks like a promising sustainable solution.