Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy MME) has said its Pernambuco region will soon have a solar power generation complex with 810 MW capacity, after the Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque inaugurated the same in the municipality of Sao Jose do Belmonte.
The entire complex will comprise:
The Bom Nome project is scheduled to come online in April 2022, while Belmonte project is expected to come online in Q3/2022.
While the ministry didn't specify about the Brigida Solar Project, local media reports suggest the 80 MW facility has been grid connected to the National Interconnected System (SIN) since May 2021.
According to the ministry, this project is likely to be the 'largest' solar power generation complex in Latin America, to be completed by solar project developer Solatio with investments worth BRL 3 billion ($570 million). However, in June 2020 SEMAD gave environmental clearance to a 1.35 GW solar PV project of Aurora Energia calling it the 'largest' PV project in Brazil (see Brazil Okays Largest PV Project In Country).
Albuquerque said the utility scale solar PV capacity of Brazil is around 3.3 GW and accounts for 2% of the country's electricity mix, while distributed generation has approximately 6 GW capacity serving 400,000 consumers. Over the next 10 years, the Brazilian government targets to mobilize BRL 100 billion ($19 billion) investment in solar energy generation, he added while promoting supportive policies of allowing for green debentures to finance renewable projects, and ensuring zero import taxes for solar energy equipment. These measures, he explained, have improved competitiveness of solar energy and also lowered prices for energy consumers.
Brazil has also been conducting new energy auctions to procure power from various energy sources, including solar PV. On August 24, 2021, CEMIG will hold a Special Incentive Electricity Purchase Auction for solar and wind power procurement (see Brazil: Solar & Wind Energy Auction On August 24, 2021).