Carlos Jácome

Regional Lead Specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Energy Division

Carlos is a Regional Lead Specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Energy Division and Energy Coordinator for Central America. He joined the IDB in 2012 and began working as an energy specialist in Honduras. Carlos has also worked as an energy specialist in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Carlos has led a wide range of operations, including investment projects, programmatic operations for policy-based lending programs, and technical cooperation projects focused on energy sector reforms and support for energy transition programs in the region. His investment projects include investment programs to increase electricity coverage in countries such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras; modernization and repowering of hydroelectric plants; and electricity transmission projects.

His professional experience prior to the IDB was in the private sector, working with international organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), providing technical assistance to government entities. His private sector work includes serving as Plant and Energy Manager at a sugar mill, where he was responsible for electricity and steam production, aswell as ethanol production. He also worked for the multinational Siemens. He was Project Coordinator for power generation plants, water production, and process optimization in the sugar, cement, and paper industries. He worked for seven years on the Galapagos Islands renewable energy project—the ERGAL Project—as Technical Coordinator and Project Manager. Carlos was responsible for implementing the first microgrids using wind, photovoltaic, and pure Jatropha plant biofuel, supporting the government’s plan to eliminate fossil fuel use in the Galapagos Archipelago. Carlos has also been a guest lecturer in graduate programs at several Latin American universities.