Brazil
BRABrazil is first in Latin America and the Caribbean for how much electricity it makes.
751 TWh a year.
What this grid depends on
Three measures that say more about a country than how much power it makes. Open “what this means” on any of them if the term is new.
Among the cleanest electricity anywhere.
What this means
How much planet-warming gas is released to make one unit of electricity. Two countries can generate exactly the same amount and one of them be ten times dirtier doing it. Lower is better.
Brazil buys in more electricity than it sends out.
What this means
The share of the electricity used here that was generated abroad and carried in over high-voltage lines. The higher it climbs, the more this country relies on a neighbour to keep its lights on.
Most of what this grid runs on is produced at home.
What this means
How much of what this grid runs on the country can supply itself. Sun, wind and water count fully, because nobody can cut them off; coal, gas and oil only as far as the country digs them up. A high score is not the same as a good grid: mining your own coal scores well, importing uranium scores badly.
Also true of Brazil
Brazil has taken the carbon out of its electricity fast.
189 grams of CO2e a kilowatt-hour in 2015, 110 in 2025.
Brazil is second in Latin America and the Caribbean for wind.
Wind supplies 16% of its electricity.
Wind overtook gas on Brazil's grid in 2022.
Today wind supplies 16% and gas 7%.
Brazil’s neighbours
ArgentinaArgentina is first in Latin America and the Caribbean for nuclear.
ColombiaColombia uses less electricity per person than any other country in the OECD.
VenezuelaVenezuela has taken the carbon out of its electricity fast.
PeruPeru gets next to none of its electricity from oil, in a region built on it.
ParaguayParaguay runs almost entirely on hydro.
Figures are for 2025, the most recent year reported for Brazil. Generation shares are a percentage of electricity generated, not of energy used. How this is calculated.