Honduras in Washington’s Sights: Energy, Gas, AI and Data Centres

HONDURAS · INVESTMENT

Washington has put Honduras energy, natural gas, artificial intelligence and data centres on its investment map. The message came from Thomas R. Hardy, a senior US trade official, after three days in Tegucigalpa.

Who came to Tegucigalpa, and why it matters

Thomas R. Hardy is deputy director and director of operations at the United States Trade and Development Agency, known as the USTDA. It is the agency that funds the early, risky stages of infrastructure abroad.

Hardy spent three days in Honduras last week. He met President Nasry Asfura at the presidential house and sat down with the energy ministry, the state power company and the private sector.

He also met the governments and banks already circling the country. His talks included Japan, South Korea, Spain, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

The political framing was explicit. Hardy said President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio want closer economic cooperation with allies in the hemisphere, and Honduras is one of them.

“A regional leader for energy”

The headline quote belongs to Hardy himself. If the energy law passes, he told El Heraldo, Honduras “can be a regional leader for energy”.

The logic runs through gas. The United States is a leading exporter of liquefied natural gas, and Hardy said his agency has 30 years of experience with gas terminal projects.

The vision is a Honduras that imports US gas, generates power and exports electricity to its neighbours. The agency has done similar work in other countries.

But the condition is the reform. Investors need a stable power market, Hardy said, and that includes a state operator that does not lose money on every megawatt it sells.

That operator is the Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica, the state utility known as the ENEE. Its chronic losses are the core problem the liberalisation bill is meant to fix.

Hardy stressed that Honduras energy reform is what unlocks everything else. New generation, transmission lines and gas pipelines all wait on it.

From power lines to data centres

The interesting part for foreign investors is what comes after the electricity. Hardy linked power directly to manufacturing, artificial intelligence and data centres.

His argument is a chain. Reliable electricity brings industry, and industry-grade electricity brings the digital infrastructure that Central America lacks.

Data centres are famously hungry for power, which is why the Honduras energy question comes first. Nobody builds a server farm behind an unstable grid.

Hardy said his agency will now work out what it can fund. Studies with the ENEE, the ministry and private firms are the next step after his departure.

The corridor that is already funded

Unlike the energy plans, the interoceanic corridor is already moving. The USTDA and the State Department have committed funds to it.

The corridor links Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean with San Lorenzo on the Pacific. Ports, dry docks, roads and possibly rail would move cargo between the two oceans.

The first US investments are going into both ports to measure their capacity. The goal is to know what to buy and build next.

Asfura signed the corridor agreement in Washington in March. Hardy said the president’s growth vision is what brought him back to Honduras now.

Honduras already qualifies for USTDA feasibility studies, technical assistance and pilot projects. The agency’s condition is simple: an environment where US companies want to do business.

What this means for expats and investors

For foreign residents, cheaper and steadier power is the tangible prize. Blackouts and high tariffs have shaped daily life and business costs for years.

For investors, the signal is that Washington is doing early-stage risk work. That is the phase before banks and builders arrive.

The open question is political. The energy bill must pass Congress, and the ENEE’s finances must survive contact with liberalisation.

Watch two dates in practice. The first is the vote on the energy law; the second is the first funded study out of Puerto Cortés or San Lorenzo.

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