- A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies reveals how solar projects throughout southern Honduras have negatively impacted the local economy and health of surrounding communities.
- It says the state awarded contracts that avoided rigorous environmental oversight, leading to tree cover loss and pollution.
- At the same time, solar power development has done little to transition Honduras away from fossil fuels, which continue to be the largest contributor to the country’s electricity generation.
In 2013, officials in Honduras made renewable energy development a “national priority,” with a special interest in attracting foreign investment in new solar power technology. Over the last 20 years, the government has introduced tax cuts and other economic benefits to accelerate the creation of solar projects, in one case approving 23 solar parks in an overnight legislative session.
But the speed of approval for those projects has drawn criticism from human rights and conservation groups that say the state awarded contracts that avoided more rigorous environmental oversight. At the same time, the energy companies continue to see disproportionate profits compared to local communities living near the projects, often without access to electricity themselves.
According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, solar projects throughout southern Honduras have negatively impacted the local economy and health of surrounding communities. The projects have also done little to transition the country away from fossil fuels, raising questions about who truly benefits, according to the report.
“About a decade ago, gleaming mosaic of solar parks was installed in southern Honduras, accompanied by promises of a transition to green energy that would bring about jobs, abundant cheap energy, and community development,” said the report, which was also published by the Transnational Institute, TerraJusta and Honduras Solidarity Network, among other environmental and human rights groups. “But the impact so far is eerily similar to the prevailing development model in Honduras, which concentrates benefits on the rich and externalizes impacts on the poor.”
The Los Prados solar energy project
In 2014, congress approved nine contracts for the Los Prados solar energy project in the southern department of Choluteca. These contracts allowed the companies to operate for 50 years and to supply energy to the government for 20 years.
Los Prados is a single complex but the contracts were awarded in pieces — company by company — making them small enough to require more lenient environmental permits, according to the report. This meant the projects didn’t require environmental impact assessments to mitigate damage to the surrounding ecosystems.
As a result, large swaths of old-growth Calabash trees (Crescentia cujete) were destroyed to make room for the 145.61-hectare (359.8-acre) complex, according to the report. Its location near streams, rivers and estuaries also limited access to drinking water and killed fish.
Solar panels are cleaned and kept clear of weeds with harmful chemicals, residents said.
“People who fish using traditional methods can no longer fish where the estuaries reach their communities, but have to go even further inland. Why? Because the waters are contaminated, so the fish don’t come,” said Darwin Pineda, a member of the Social Environmental Movement of the South for Life (MASSVida), one of the organizations that published the report.
Residents also said they weren’t adequately consulted about the potential impacts of the project.
The companies that purchased the shares of the original contracts — Scatec Solar, Norfund, and KLP Norfund Investments — met with the community on a “by farm” basis as opposed to organizing meetings for the entire community, according to an outside 2024 legal analysis by EcoJuris, an environmental consulting firm.
Scatec Solar and KLP Norfund Investments didn’t respond to Mongabay’s request for comment.
In an email, a spokesperson told Mongabay that Norfund assesses environmental and social risks and impacts, governance structures, integrity considerations and broader contextual risks.
“We expect our investee companies to identify, manage and mitigate environmental and social risks in line with these standards,” the spokesperson said.
They added, “Investing in challenging and underserved markets is a core part of Norfund’s mandate. Such markets often present elevated environmental, social and governance risks, which is why robust due diligence and active ownership are central to our approach. “
Over 30 complaints about prior consultation and other irregularities have been filed by residents, MASSVida and the Network of Women Human Rights Defense Lawyers. The complaints haven’t advanced, according to the report.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office couldn’t be reached by Mongabay for comment.
In 2016, residents stopped heavy machinery from entering the area and set up a resistance camp against construction. The companies involved filed criminal complaints against the protesters and, on several occasions, police were deployed to evict the camps.
Some people still have travel restrictions, the report said, including mandatory court check-ins and other long-term judicial monitoring.
Protests managed to stop six of the nine projects from moving forward with construction, the report said. But residents say the threat of development persists.
“People believe that the problem has disappeared because the project has not been implemented. But the companies have the permits. They can come at any time,” Leonardo Amador, a local leader in Choluteca, told the authors of the report. “If it has not been done, if it has not been implemented, it is because of resistance.”
Inequality and scarcity
Since 2014, electricity generation from solar power has consistently risen in Honduras, with the only decline occurring briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2024, the country generated 1,020.04 GWh from solar power, representing about 8% of its total energy generation, according to the Ministry of Energy’s General Directorate of Electricity and Markets.
But at the same time, fossil fuels generated 5,028.71 GWh, or about 40.50% of total national electricity generation, similar to the annual contribution it’s made over the last decade.
The figures suggest that the development of solar power didn’t lead to a planned withdrawal of fossil fuel power plants, the IPS report said. Instead, it created a new market for wealthy national and transnational investors.
“The international push for greater investment in renewables did not mark the beginning of a transition away from fossil fuel-based energy generation, nor did it deliver on its promises of employment and development for those most directly affected,” it said.
Honduras still struggles with electricity access, the report said. Many households don’t cook with “modern energy” such as grid, renewable and fossil fuel electricity.
Some communities around the solar parks still lack consistent access to electricity or pay higher prices than before the parks were built, according to the report — in some cases 60% higher.
When the solar parks were approved, companies agreed to pay communities as much as $7,000 annually for “community development.” But residents say the payments haven’t always come. The money has also only gone to minor repairs to sports and educational infrastructure, according to the report.
What the communities need is better roads and bridges, residents said.
“They offered us many things, they sang to us very prettily in order to build these solar plants, and now none of those beautiful promises have come true,” one resident from Choluteca told the authors of the report.
Banner image: Solar panels sit behind barbed wire in Agua Fria, Honduras. Image courtesy of the Institute of Policy Studies.
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Cite this article
Maxwell Radwin (2026). In Honduras, solar power has done more harm than good, communities say. Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322820Credits
