Solar Power in Brazil

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.

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. Now with solar panels selling for 70c/watts wholesale, retail solar power can be generated at 29c/KwH according to the Brazilian regulation EPE. Though still high compared to the 15c/KwH utility generated solar power price, this price is still competitive to the peak power prices of 35c/Kwh, being charged by utilities. Consumers in Brazil are rapidly taking advantage of this price difference. The Government is boosting those efforts through the Proesco program which helps in financing the initial costs of the solar systems.

Read about the Pros & Cons of other Renewable Energy.

Bloomberg

 Producing power from rooftop solar panels in Brazil costs less than electricity sold by 10 of the country’s 63 power distributors, according to the national energy agency Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica.

Electricity from a typical 5 kilowatt system costs about 602 reais ($299) a megawatt-hour, EPE said today in a report. Distributors charge 240 reais to 709 reais for residential power.

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