Brazil wind and solar above average in 2025; Mexico below normal in December

In December 2025, Brazil had the largest tracked capacity for operating wind and solar in the Americas, outside of the US. Brazil had wind speed and solar radiation levels deviations more than 2% above normal in 2025. Mexico experienced below-average wind speeds and solar radiation in December. Peru's high-altitude solar resources had higher-than-average solar radiation in December, and throughout 2025, while Panama's weather resources were below average over both periods.

Wind

Brazil leads the Americas in wind capacity, with 29,427 MW of tracked operating capacity as of December 2025. Despite a 2.7% wind speed decrease from typical monthly conditions, the country was 2.5% above the norm in full year 2025.

Canada recorded the most positive monthly change in wind speeds, rising 6.1% above normal on 18,045 MW of capacity. But it still ended the year almost at parity, with wind speeds 1.2% above the norm.

In Panama, with 508 MW of capacity, wind speeds declined 15.5% below normal in December and ended the year with the region's largest 2025 decrease at 5.6%. Despite Costa Rica's 462 MW having a similar month of wind speeds being 15.3% below the norm, it finished the year less significantly negative, at -2.2%.

At the project level, the 1,038.0-MW Usina Eólica Rio do Vento — the regional leader — in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, recorded a 2.6% increase in monthly output and a 1.0% gain in the year to date. In British Columbia, Canada, the 15.0-MW Pennask Wind Project (Okanagan Wind) had wind speeds 26.5% above normal in December, while farther north in the same province, the 144.0-MW Dokie Wind Energy project had wind speeds 25.6% below normal.

Six projects in Chubut, Argentina — with a combined capacity of 227.4 MW — had positive monthly deviations in excess of 20%.

Brazil's 58.8-MW Usina Eólica Baraunas in Bahia posted a 10.8% 2025 wind speed increase, the largest positive deviation, while the 2.2-MW Planta Eólica Baltra in the Galápagos, Ecuador, saw an 8.6% decrease for the year. If one looks at medium and large-size projects, the 215.0-MW Planta Eólica Penonomé II, in Coclé, Cuba, had the largest negative deviation in the year, at 6.0%.

Solar

Brazil also leads the region in solar capacity in December 2025, operating 15,225 MW of tracked capacity. This total does not include distributed generation in Brazil. The tracked capacity recorded solar radiation 1.7% above normal for the month and 2.3% above the norm for the year. Second-placed Mexico — with 11,828 MW — had insolation levels 2.8% below the norm, dragging on its yearly metric of being a barely positive 0.9%.

Peru's solar radiation had the most positive monthly deviation in December, at 15.5%, meaning the annual figure was also a leading 3.3% above on its 882 MW of capacity. At the other extreme, Guatemala's solar radiation was 7.5% below normal in the month on its 324 MW, while Panama recorded 2.9% below normal in 2025 and in December on its 505 MW.

At a project level, the capacity-leading 1,600.0-MW Complexo Solar Janauba in Minas Gerais, Brazil, had solar radiation 4.8% above normal in December and 1.6% higher in 2025.

The 10 utility-scale solar projects in Ecuador all had solar radiation above normal in December, ranging from 7.2% to 28.0%, with a capacity-weighted average of 19.5%. The 1.0-MW Planta Solar Sansau, in Guayas, recorded solar radiation 28.0% above average for the month and 7.9% above for the year.

Mexico City's 18.0-MW Central de Abasto Solar Project (CEDA) had solar radiation in December that was the most negative from the norm, at -14.9% below normal. For the full year, the 14.3-MW Melgar Planta De Energía Solar and the 12.7-MW Yuma Planta De Energía Solar — both in Tolima, Colombia — were the most negative, at 7.9% below normal.

Solar radiation is the mean surface downward shortwave radiation flux, measured from the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis. This variable includes direct and diffuse solar radiation and is the model equivalent of global horizontal irradiance — the value measured by a pyranometer, a solar radiation measuring instrument. Wind speed is the value 100 meters above the ground from the same dataset. The data is available at quarter-degree latitudes and longitudes, with a spacing of slightly over 27.5 km. This analysis compares the December 2025 values with the 20-year average (from 2004 to 2023) for December.

Data visualization by Oscar Solano.
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