Brazil added 4.2 GW of distributed solar in H1

Brazil deployed 4.2 GW of new distributed-generation solar in the first six months of 2023, according to Aneel, the country’s regulator. This included the connection of 365,000 new systems to the grid under the net-metering regime.

By the end of June, the cumulative capacity of distributed PV systems in Brazil, including installations up to 5 MW in size, reached 22 GW. These installations were distributed across more than 2 million arrays.

In the first half of the year, the residential segment accounted for approximately 2.12 GW of the newly installed capacity, while the commercial segment contributed around 1 GW. The remaining capacity was represented by small-scale solar parks.

Among the states, São Paulo demonstrated the highest growth, adding 656 MW in the first six months, followed by Minas Gerais with an additional 460 MW. Minas Gerais currently leads in cumulative capacity with 3,002 MW, slightly ahead of São Paulo’s 3,000 MW.

Eight states in Brazil have surpassed the milestone of 1 GW of installed capacity each by the end of June. Apart from Minas Gerais and São Paulo, these states include Rio Grande do Sul with 2,272 MW, Paraná with 2,140 MW, Santa Catarina with 1,365 MW, Mato Grosso with 1,286 MW, Goiás with 1,023 MW, and Bahia as the sole Northeastern state with over 1 GW, specifically 1,000.235 MW.

Most of the capacity added in the first half of the year came from on-site installations, accounting for 77% of the observed expansion in 2023, totaling 3,264 MW. In cumulative terms, on-site distributed generation represents 77% of the total with 17,229 MW.