From Belo Monte to the Andes: China's Clean-Energy Cooperation Lights Up Latin America

From an ultra-high-voltage transmission line in Brazil to a solar park high in the Andes, Chinese companies are deepening energy cooperation with Latin America through ultra-high-voltage, digital and clean-energy technologies, powering a green transition for the Global South. Behind these projects is a shift from simply investing capital toward exporting technical standards and management expertise.

Moving power from north to south

Brazil faces a classic spatial mismatch. The Amazon basin, rich in hydropower, lies in the north, while demand from industry and households is concentrated in the southeast, in cities such as Rio de Janeiro. Delivering clean hydropower to those demand centers makes long-distance, low-loss transmission essential.

The Belo Monte Phase II project, invested in and operated by State Grid Corp of China, is one answer to that challenge. The ultra-high-voltage direct-current line runs 2,534 kilometers, under a 30-year concession. A senior engineer at the State Grid Energy Research Institute said the project sets a global paradigm for cross-regional clean-energy transmission and proves the safety, maturity and global applicability of China's ultra-high-voltage grid technologies.

Renewing older plants

In Brazil, Chinese firms are not only building new projects but also upgrading existing ones. CTG Brasil operates the Jupia and Ilha Solteira hydropower stations under a 30-year, roughly 3.7 billion US dollar concession, with a combined installed capacity of nearly 5 million kilowatts, supplying power to more than 6 million people each year.

In operation, China Three Gorges Corp has digitally upgraded these long-running plants, replacing mechanical equipment that had been in service for decades with intelligent monitoring systems, improving efficiency and reliability.

Solar in the Andes

In Argentina, another landmark project sits in the Andes at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. The Cauchari solar complex, built jointly by Power Construction Corp of China and Shanghai Electric Power Construction Co, has an installed capacity of 315 megawatts and more than 1.2 million solar panels, making it one of the highest-altitude solar parks in the world. The project has allowed Jujuy province to achieve energy self-sufficiency, no longer depending on outside power.

From capital to standards

For a deputy director of China's National Energy Administration, new-energy cooperation has become a fresh driver of energy synergy between China and Latin America. From ultra-high voltage to high-altitude solar, from new construction to renovation, what Chinese firms bring to the region is increasingly technical solutions and operating capability, not only funding.

Driven by high-level mechanisms such as the China-CELAC Forum, these projects are tying regional grid stability to the green transition. For many Latin American countries, how to use outside technology to build a locally sustainable energy system remains a long-term task, and these works lighting up valleys and highlands may be one reference point after another.