Carlos Barrera

Atlas Renewable Energy
Co-Founder and CEO


Carlos (‘Ucho’) Barrera is currently the CEO of Atlas Renewable Energy, a leading regional Latin American Renewable Energy company that is currently one of the largest solar IPPs in the region. Atlas started operations in early 2017 after a successful MBO backed by Actis, one of the more prominent investors in the energy sector and emerging markets space. Since then it has grown to nearly 1GW of contracted projects, to an enterprise value exceeding $1.5bn.

Before his current position, Carlos Barrera was the VP & Managing Director of SunEdison for Latin America, responsible for the company’s Latin America business unit and with overall accountability for the commercial strategy, operational execution, P&L and regional corporate results. Here he oversaw the contracting of 900MW of solar projects, the construction & execution of some 550MW and an overall investment sum of $1bn structured with project finance. Previous to this role within SunEdison, Carlos undertook numerous executive positions such as General Manager for South America in SunEdison where he grew the company’s entry into Latin America from scratch; and Development Director of “Utility Scale Projects” for Europe, Latin America, North of Africa and Middle East where he was responsible for solar project development and M&A across numerous jurisdictions.

Before joining SunEdison, Carlos Barrera worked at BP starting his career in the renowned challenger graduate program working in conventional oil & gas commercial, financial and business development roles. He then moved to the Alternative Energy Division within BP, specifically to the Carbon capture and storage (CCS) business, focused on Project Development and strategy in Australia, USA and the EU. He then moved to the Venture Capital team, leading origination efforts in the carbon trading segment, mainly focused in China and India. He subsequently became responsible for the development of new markets for large-scale projects at BP Solar, where he led a number of successful multi-million-dollar large-scale solar project sales to institutional investors.

Carlos has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania (USA), and an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He has also attended several executive management and leadership courses in numerous institutions and holds a certificate of Program for Leadership Development (PLD) from Harvard University.