Colombia's operational photovoltaic power capability was 2,590.26 MW by the close of September 2026, as per the information from grid operator XM. This represents 11.7% of the net effective power capability of the National Interconnected System (SIN). This value indicates an impressive jump. At the end of 2025, Colombia had only 1,594.08 MW of operational solar capacity, which equated to 7.6% of the total capacity. During the first nine months of 2026 alone, solar capacity rose by 996.18 MW or 62.5%, and its contribution to the generation mix increased by 4.1 percentage points.
This growth is no longer marginal. Hydropower remains dominant at 13,229 MW and thermal at 6,377 MW, but solar has moved decisively into third place within a SIN of roughly 22,196 MW. The drivers are both utility-scale and distributed. The Puerta de Oro facility, initiated by Patria Investments, added 360 MW in July 2026, with over 511,000 solar panels and annual generation projected to be over 700 GWh, which accounts for approximately half of the country's total installation capacity over the quarter. At the same time, distributed generation and self-consumption technologies are also progressing: Celsia has completed the construction of the Escobales/CEMEX plant, which has a capacity of 19.9 MW, which provides about one quarter of the demand for electricity of a cement factory, while the Escobales complex which was built in Tolima by POWERCHINA and brought to life by Celsia and Cubico was commissioned in different stages between December 2025 and March 2026 and has a capacity of 144 MW.
Policy has reinforced the pipeline. In the clean energy auction held in July 2026 in Colombia, 995 MW of solar capacity was awarded along with approximately 100 MW of battery storage, for 15-year contracts starting from the year 2030. After that, in a separate firm energy auction held in May, the allocation of 1,546.9 MW of solar capacity for 29 projects was done for the years 2029-2030. While these mechanisms signal long-term demand and lower the price risk, they open up the main contradiction of the sector. That contradiction is that the contracting of capacity is happening more quickly than the system can adequately handle the incoming renewable energy.
Insufficiency in infrastructure and approval of permits is causing bottlenecks. There are over 300 power generation and transmission waiting for permission, with delays as long as 2,000 days; some projects have had to be put on hold for even 13 years! At this point, grid congestion means having to limit the output from solar energy production; the 500 kV infrastructure meant to transmit the renewable energy from abundant areas to consumption centers is not finished yet. According to estimations, about 2,200 GWh of renewable energy is merely wasted, while the potential of around 2.9-3.5 GW can be utilized through the existing technology and new strategies.
The risks are considerable since Colombia relies largely on hydro power-around 80% of its electricity production-which leaves it open to the vulnerability associated with the El Niño phenomenon. While solar energy brings daytime benefits, it tends to vanish once the sun sets, which is when power demand surges. For this reason, having battery storage in place is mandatory rather than exceptional and will be implemented for the first time in the auction taking place in 2026.
Colombia is able to develop a solar capacity. The challenge now is to build all necessary infrastructures, speed up the permitting process, and keep up with battery storage development for power generation of 2,590 MW not to be a one-time achievement.
