Climate change has intensified the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy. This study analyzes the energy transition, specifically solar in Ecuador in comparison with 17 other Latin American countries (excluding island nations) to ensure structural comparability. Environmental variables (solar irradiance GHI and photovoltaic potential PVOUT), economic variables (GDP per capita and renewable generation per capita), and institutional variables (political stability and regulatory quality) are used, with data from IRENA, the Global Solar Atlas, and the World Bank for 2020–2023. Spearman’s correlation analysis shows that no single variable significantly explains the solar capacity factor (ρ_GHI = 0.14; p = 0.58), demonstrating that resource availability does not determine its utilization. The main contribution is the construction of a typology of four trajectories using hierarchical clustering (Ward, K = 4): an intermediate-performance group (including Ecuador), a group with high endowment and variable outcomes, a cluster of small economies, and a leading case represented by Chile. Ecuador exhibits a gap between its solar potential and its effective utilization, associated with hydroelectric dependence and regulatory limitations. It is concluded that the solar transition depends more on institutional and public policy factors than on natural resource endowment. These findings carry direct implications for climate policy: countries such as Ecuador, which exhibit a structural gap between solar potential and effective utilization, face barriers that limit their capacity to diversify away from hydroelectric dependence, reduce carbon intensity in the electricity sector, and meet the renewable energy targets embedded in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).