In a groundbreaking move aimed at addressing an imminent energy gap, the government of Belize has officially declared a national power supply emergency, giving the country’s primary electricity provider, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), the green light to accelerate efforts to secure alternative energy sources after its long-standing primary supplier proved increasingly unstable.
The emergency declaration, approved by the Belizean Cabinet last week, removes bureaucratic barriers that previously slowed BEL’s ability to negotiate new power purchase agreements. For years, Belize has relied heavily on imported electricity from Mexico’s state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), but CFE has been grappling with its own widespread energy infrastructure challenges in recent years, leading to frequent delivery disruptions and eroding Belize’s confidence in the cross-border supply arrangement.
While preliminary talks have been held to explore potential power imports from neighboring Guatemala, those discussions remain in the early conceptual phase, with no concrete agreements on the horizon. That has pushed Belizean officials to prioritize developing domestic energy capacity, with a specific focus on expanding renewable energy generation across the country.
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Chief Executive Officer of Belize’s Ministry of Public Utilities, outlined the government’s core strategy in remarks prepared for a national broadcast, noting that the end goal is to lock in affordable, reliable power generated within Belize’s borders—at a lower cost than the current imported power from Mexico.
“Every new power procurement we move forward with is guided by two core priorities: expanding access to reliable electricity for all Belizeans, and securing that power at the lowest possible cost, which we believe can only be achieved by leaning into domestic resources,” Almendarez explained.
A centerpiece of the new strategy is the country’s existing distributed generation framework, overseen by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which is designed to unlock small-scale renewable energy development from private households and businesses. Under the program, property owners can install their own solar panels, power their homes or commercial operations, and connect their systems to the national grid. Any excess energy generated beyond on-site use can be sold back to BEL at a fixed rate of 6.5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, or 13 Belize cents.
Almendarez emphasized that this distributed renewable model is already the cheapest source of power available to Belize, and the program has already proven successful: currently, 11 megawatts of electricity are already flowing into the national grid from distributed renewable generation projects. Moving forward, BEL’s upcoming procurement rounds will prioritize this model, with opportunities for projects ranging from 250 kilowatts up to 1 megawatt in capacity.
By centering distributed renewables, officials aim to avoid the pitfall of locking in high-cost power imports that would ultimately force consumers to cut back on electricity use due to unaffordable rate hikes. The emergency declaration kickstarts a formal procurement process that is expected to attract domestic and international investment in Belize’s growing renewable energy sector, as the country transitions away from its reliance on unstable regional imports.