Mineirao Stadium in Brazil shows off its PV installations at Confederations Cup semifinal

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Mineirao Stadium in Brazil studded with PV rooftop Installations

The Mineirao Stadium in Brazil has installed 1.4 MW rooftop solar power. This stadium is all set to host the Confederations Cup semifinal between Brazil and Uruguay on Wednesday. The project was inaugrated in may this year built by Martifer Solar of Portugal. The project also boasts of setting up rooftop installation on the nearby Mineirinho Arena which will generate 2.5 MW of total energy when complete. The plan is to supply power to the grid, instead of being directly used in the stadium.

Solar Energy is now cheaper to generate than buying electricity from the utility for retail consumers, in Brazil. The sharp fall in solar panel prices last year has made the prices of solar electricity fall steeply leading to grid parity in a number of places globally.

Solar Energy in Brazil

Brazil has:

a) one of the highest electricity rates in the world

b) uniformly high sunshine throughout the year.

The country also does not have a lot of coal and gas deposits to generate energy leading it to be mainly dependent on hydro power resources. In times of drought , the country goes into a massive energy deficit leading to spike in energy prices. However solar power is set to change the country’s energy dynamics forever. The high prices of electricity charged by most of the utilities in the country has made solar power attractive to retail consumers. Even before, diesel gensets were used due to the high utility prices. The Government over there has taken steps of boosting these efforts through the Proesco program, which helps in financing the initial costs of the solar systems.

Cost & Finance of the Stadium Project

The project involves an investment cost of €12.5 million, financed in the form of a €10 million loan with reduced interest from the German Redevelopment bank and €2.5 million through CEMIC’s own contribution. The Mineirao Stadium is also the venue for the 2014 World Cup and hence will be a great opportunity for solar energy to popularity amongst sponsors and common masses.

Germany’s efforts to promote Solar Energy

The huge subsidies given the German government has allowed the solar industry to expand from 5 GW in 2008 to more than 30 GW in 2012. The yearly fall in subsidies made solar companies more competitive and forced them to drop costs every year to keep up with the IRR. The country installed more than 7 GW in each of the last 3 years, despite subsidies being brought down by more than 50%. Germany is the cause of the solar panel prices now being available for 65c/watt down from $4/watt in 2008. Germany now has a solar capacity of 32 GW which is almost 2 times that the capacity of the next biggest country Italy. The country managed to supply almost 60% of its demand during noon on a June day, when millions of its solar panels generated peak power.

PV Magazine

Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz, state secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), along with Antônio Anastásia, governor of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and Djalma Bastos de Morais, president of Brazilian energy utility CEMIG, inaugurated the first solar panel erected on the roof of the Mineirão Stadium in May.”On average, solar radiation in Brazil is twice as high as in Germany,” said Beerfeltz. “Until now, however, that potential has hardly been used for power generation. We want to help our Brazilian partners to change that.”