Brazil surpasses historic mark of 12 GW in solar generation, says Absolar

Brazil surpasses historic mark of 12 GW in solar generation, says Absolar

Brazil has just surpassed the historic mark of 12 gigawatts (GW) of operational power from the solar photovoltaic source, in large plants and in small and medium systems installed on roofs, facades and land, the Brazilian Solar Energy Association(Absolar) said.

According to the entity, the solar source has already brought Brazil more than R$60 billion in new investments since 2012. "Large-scale solar plants generate electricity at prices up to ten times lower than emergency fossil thermoelectric plants or electricity imported from neighbouring countries today, two of the main culprits for the tariff increase on consumers," Absolar president Rodrigo Sauaia said in a statement.

Since 2012, solar generation has avoided the emission of 13.6 million tons of CO2 in electricity generation. The source represents only 2% of the Brazilian electric matrix, but the forecast is for growth in the coming years in Brazil and in the world, and may become the main energy generator by 2050. In the case of distributed generation, there was an increase of 53% from January to November this year.

Sauaia highlighted that, besides helping to lower the electricity bill, solar energy can be installed more quickly than other sources. "One day of installation is enough to transform a home or business into a small plant that generates clean, renewable and affordable electricity. For a large-scale solar plant, it takes less than 18 months from the auction to the start of electricity generation," he explained.

Brazil has 4.5 GW of installed power in large solar plants, equivalent to 2.4% of the country's electricity matrix. Since 2012, large solar power plants have brought Brazil more than R$23.5 billion in new investments and more than 135,000 jobs accumulated, as well as providing a tax collection of R$6.3 billion to public coffers.

Currently, large-scale solar plants are the sixth largest generation source in Brazil, with undertakings in operation in nine Brazilian states, in the Northeast (Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte), Southeast (Minas Gerais and São Paulo) and Centre-West (Tocantins) regions.

In the own energy generation segment, there are 7.5 GW of installed power from solar sources. This is equivalent to more than R$ 37.1 billion in investments and R$ 9.4 billion in accumulated collection since 2012, spread over the five regions of Brazil. Solar technology is currently used in 99.9% of all self-generation connections in the country.

Source: www.uol.com.br