Brazil

At pv magazine‘s first quality roundtable in Latin America – at Intersolar South America in Sao Paulo – we were joined by international players such as JinkoSolar and DuPont, as well as public and private Latin American entities striving to bring more quality to the PV supply chain from the US-Mexico border to Tierra del Fuego.

In an interview with pv magazine at this year’s Intersolar SA in Sao Paulo, Rodrigo Sauaia, president of Brazilian solar association, ABSSOLAR discussed the current issues and opportunities in Brazil’s PV market. The association is calling on the Brazilian Government to contract up to 2 GW of solar power in future auctions, and to maintain current rules for DG. The private PPA segment, meanwhile, which only a year ago appeared unviable, has begun to show positive results. All in all, solar in Brazil is growing, despite the hurdles created by a difficult political and economical environment.

The sixth edition of Intersolar South America in Sao Paulo has showed unequivocally that both international and Brazilian players firmly believe in the big potential of the Brazilian solar market, despite the current political uncertainty and usual economic challenges. Overall, the event was larger and of a higher quality than last year, while in the absence of future dates for new large-scale solar auctions, and stable conditions for private PPAs, DG is emerging as the market’s main driver.

Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Rio Alto is planning to deploy another 210 MW of solar plants in the state of Paraiba, while Korean company KSB is discussing a $1.5 billion solar project with the authorities of Campo Grande, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

At the end of June 2018, according to official statistics, large-scale solar capacity reached 1,307 MW, while the share of distributed PV generation (up to 5 MW), was 296 MW. Of the total capacity, 1.36 GW was connected to the grid in the last 12 months.

As the global EV market grows, manufacturers are seeking new revenue streams for used EV batteries. Applications in grid and residential storage systems have become popular. The market for second-life EV batteries is expected to reach $4.2 billion by 2025.

The thin-film specialist has met representatives of the municipality of Uberaba, in the west of the state of Minas Gerais, to discuss project details. Planned investment may reach $1 billion as the Chinese manufacturer, like its peers, targets overseas markets.

Canadian Solar and EDF will maintain a stake of 30% and 20%, respectively, in the solar plant. The value of the transaction is estimated at BRL 1.1 billion (US$283.6 million).

Although the volume has not been disclosed, selected projects in this new auction will have to start delivering power by January 2022. In the first auction of this kind, held in June, the Brazilian power provider contracted 431.4 MW of wind and solar power.

According to a new report published by consultancy Greener, the price of DG systems keeps falling in Brazil and total installed capacity has surpassed 308 MW. In the first half of the year, newly installed capacity was around 126 MW – more than the country installed in all of last year.