MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Solar energy use grows at a record pace in Brazil

With the reduction in monthly bills, the investment is recovered in a few years, it was explained

Monetary savings when compared to electricity stemming from other sources reaches up to 90%, Agencia Brasil reported Sunday about the increasing use of solar energy in South America's largest country.

The data was released by the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar), the agency added. Solar energy has been growing fast in Brazil and ranks third in energy generation, it was also reported.

The country surpassed the mark of 19 gigawatts (GW) of installed potency of the photovoltaic solar source. Of this total, 13 are power plants installed on rooftops, facades, and small plots of land. The rest corresponds to large plants.

The number is considered historical by the sector and, hence, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) estimates that the installed capacity could double by the beginning of next year.

Absolar President Rodrigo Sauaia said that the growing readjustments in the electricity bills and the reduction in costs for the installation of photovoltaic plates explain the growth of this type of energy in the country. Solar energy is considered a clean source, which does not produce waste or pollution. According to Absolar, this energy avoided the emission of almost 28 million tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the generation of electricity.

Installation costs, however, are not low. For households, the average price is R$ 25,000 (around US$ 4,725), and for industries up to R$ 200,000 (around US$ 37,785). Sauaia also pointed out that these values should be dropping shortly. With the reduction in monthly bills, the investment is recovered in a few years.

Since 2012, according to Absolar, solar energy has guaranteed R$ 10 billion (around US$ 1.9 billion) in new investments in Brazil, in addition to 640,000 jobs.

Along the same lines, Banco do Brasil (BB) has opened four solar power plants this month, in addition to the seven it has across six states. The new photovoltaic power plants are located in Xique-Xique (Bahia), Rio Paranaíba (Minas Gerais), Loanda (Paraná), and Lins (São Paulo) and were built by the energy company EDP.

According to BB, the new plants can generate up to 23 megawatts peak (MWp), which represents the maximum installed capacity in favorable climate conditions, and will generate savings of R$ 102.5 million (some US$ 19,836,396.30) in 15 years.

The four plants will offset the energy consumption of 365 branches and will make the bank stop emitting about 3 thousand tons of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere per year.

With the new plants, BB already operates seven solar energy plants. The first two were inaugurated in 2020, in Porteirinhas (Minas Gerais), and in São Domingos do Araguaia (Pará). Another plant was opened this year in Naviraí (Mato Grosso do Sul).

The project will continue to expand in the coming years. BB has 22 more photovoltaic plants in the contracting phase or under construction. When all 29 plants are in operation, the energy generated will offset the consumption of about 1.4 thousand branches.

In October, the first two BB solar plants surpassed the 30 gigawatt-hours mark in energy generation since the beginning of operations. This is enough to supply a city of 150,000 households for a whole month. Produced in the distributed generation model, the energy enters the system of local distributors, and is deducted as a credit on the BB's electricity bill.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)