
Chile
CHLSolar overtook hydro on Chile's grid in 2025.
Today solar supplies 25% and hydro 22%.
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.
Cleaner than 7 in 10 grids worldwide.
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.
Chile generates almost exactly what it uses, with next to nothing crossing its borders.
What this means
Electricity can be sold across a border like anything else, through high-voltage lines connecting one country's grid to the next. Buying it in means leaning on a neighbour to keep the lights on. Selling it means generating more than the country needs.
A mix of fuel produced at home and fuel bought in.
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 Chile
Solar overtook coal on Chile's grid in 2023.
Today solar supplies 25% and coal 18%.
Chile's electricity is cleaner than the world average.
289 grams of CO2e a kilowatt-hour against a world figure of 458 — 37% below.
Chile has no dominant fuel at all.
Its largest single source supplies just 25% of the grid.
Chile’s neighbours
PeruPeru gets next to none of its electricity from oil, in a region built on it.
ArgentinaArgentina is first in Latin America and the Caribbean for nuclear.
BoliviaBolivia is second in Latin America and the Caribbean for gas.
UruguayWind overtook hydro on Uruguay's grid in 2023.
ParaguayParaguay runs almost entirely on hydro.
Figures are for 2025, the most recent year reported for Chile. Generation shares are a percentage of electricity generated, not of energy used. How this is calculated.