Solar energy increases 70 percent in the country

Brazil is the largest market of electric power in Latin America, having a total installed capacity of approximately 146 GW, considering all sources that compose the national power matrix. In this context, since the Brazilian hydroelectric potential is 172 GW and that of wind power is 440 GW, the potential of photovoltaic solar generation is above 28500 GW, being above the total of all other sources of generation combined, according to a survey carried out by the Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (EPE).

For a long time, this potential kept unexplored but this scenario is changing. In the same way that lead to an expressive increase in wind power generation some years ago, now it is the time of solar energy. According to the Associação Brasileira de Energia Solar Fotovoltaica (Absolar), the capacity of photovoltaic generation was increased in more than 70 percent during the last two years. There are 111 projects being developed currently, 12 of them being built. With these projects, Absolar estimates that the participation of solar energy in the power matrix in 2018 will increase from the current 0.02 percent to a value between 2 and 3 percent, reaching 4 percent in 2024. And in an optimistic perspective, it may reach 10 percent of the power matrix in 2030.

The expectation is that—from the total of solar energy foreseen to be installed till 2030 (25 GW)—17 GW would be of centralized generation (large plants) and 8.2 GW of distributed generation (houses, commercial buildings and rural area, such as plantations). “If we use the roofs of Brazilian houses, the generated power would be enough to supply more than twice the home demand of the whole country”, says Rodrigo Lopes Sauaia, executive president of Absolar. “If we add commercial, industrial, public and rural buildings to these calculations, the technical potential of solar photovoltaic distributed generation will be multiplied and will increase several times. In other words, due to the potential of centralized generation and to that of distributed generation, we will have no lack of electric power so early, considering solar photovoltaic sources”, ends the executive.