# Energy Efficiency Policies to Face Buildings' Climate Change Effects in Paraguay
## 3 Review of Paraguayan Actions  
### The Road Toward EE in Paraguay  
Despite being a developing country, Paraguay has a hydroelectric power plant with the world's largest generator of renewable clean energy, being the country with the highest per capita hydroelectric power generation in the world. However, it exports 37% of the total available energy supply, 41% of its energy matrix corresponds to oil products, and 44% corresponds to biomass [23; 24]. Sustainable development in 11 Latin American countries was assessed in [25], and considering sustainability as a whole, the highest level of sustainable development was indicated in Paraguay. [PERSON] et al. [26] classify Paraguay as a major country with a larger share of clean energy. [PERSON] et al. [27] carried out a comparative analysis of the electricity export potential in South American countries, where Paraguay is highlighted as the main energy exporter. The long-term forecasting shows that Paraguay competes among the three main countries of the region to export their electricity surplus to Brazil, the only potential importer. Nevertheless, local demand continues to increase and the national electricity company forecast a deficit in the reserve margin generation in 2025; this is the reason why the authorities are focused on the construction of more facilities for energy generation like hydroelectric power stations, instead of implementing measures that can reduce local energy demands (see Figure 1) [28]. Compared to other countries in the region, Paraguay has a high value of final energy intensity (surpassed only by Bolivia) and from the sectorial composition of final energy consumption, has a high potential for saving that could cause a significant reduction of its future energy intensity. For example, as in other countries of the world, most of Paraguay's building stock has not been designed to take advantage of natural resources or to deal with the current intensification of climatic factors, such as the high temperatures and humidity characteristics of the region. These factors force users to use mechanical cooling systems since they impact the buildings' indoor thermal comfort, causing an increase in energy expenditure [30]. Currently, to solve this issue, there are new technologies that improve the buildings' performance achieving high standards of quality and comfort with lower energy expenditure. Like the previous example for the building sector, great potentials of energy saving can be detected in other economic sectors. Historically EE has assumed a minor role in Paraguay, due to the abundant existence of hydro-energetic resources and the main concern of extending electric service to the whole national territory. However, in the last few years, some measures have already been implemented and are expected to be intensified shortly [23]. In this way, EE is presented as a reliable alternative to sustainability, and its implementation has a positive association with economic development and growth [31]. The implementation of EE actions can assure energy supply, reduce waste by improving  
Figure 1: Energy demand vs. availability and generation reserve margin of Paraguay [28; 29]. the efficiency of consumption, decrease energy dependence, and mitigate global warming impacts. Paraguay has great energy-saving potential, and sectors with the greatest energy saving potentials must be identified to develop policies of high impact to exploit this potential [32]. As previously mentioned, Paraguay has the peculiarity of having a very high-energy supply in comparison to other countries of the region. Nevertheless, a large part of the country's energy matrix corresponds to oil products, while only 18% of the energy consumed is from hydroelectric production (see Figure 2) [33; 34]. Paraguay has a limited energy diversification where one of the main consumers is the residential sector, which presents a very low use of electric energy and chooses biomass as the main energy source.