Brazil

SolarPower Europe has predicted the volume of new PV capacity added this year will be 4% less than last year’s figure because of the Covid-19 crisis. At the end of 2019, the world had topped 630 GW of solar. For 2020, around 112 GW of new PV capacity is expected, and in 2021, newly installed capacity could be 149.9 GW if governments support renewables in their coronavirus economic recovery plans.

The parent of Italian tracker business Convert has entered the Brazilian solar market with plans for agri-business products and other systems.

British manufacturer Oxis Energy has announced plans to help Brazil to an all-electric bus fleet by 2045.

Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance say the lowest-cost projects financed in Australia, China, Chile and the UAE in the last six months hit a levelized cost of energy of just $23-29/MWh and the best solar and wind projects will produce electricity for less than $20/MWh by 2030.

In Brazil, like in many other parts of the world, industry associations claim that solar will be a strategic element in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, due to its potential to create jobs, generate income, and attract new investment.

Chinese manufacturer Amerisolar and Brazilian energy company Nova Renováveis are planning to set up a 200 MW solar module manufacturing facility in Belo Horizonte, in the Minas Gerais state.

The ten largest solar tracker companies accounted for 88% of the market last year, according to analyst WoodMackenzie, with the market growing 20% from 2018.

The losers in a world which no longer runs on fossil fuels are obvious but the dividend from shrugging off hydrocarbon dependency will be spread around most of the world so it is the nations which are winning the cleantech manufacturing and intellectual property race which appear best positioned for the future.

pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has delayed auctions to procure new transmission as well as generation capacity and has not announced when they will resume.