Brazilian solar PV association ABSOLAR has confirmed the largest South American country has exceeded 6 GW of cumulative installed capacity for PV, however the technology still accounts for only 0.4% of the national energy mix.
This more than 6 GW capacity, as reported by ABSOLAR on July 11, 2020, comprises 2.9 GW of large scale solar power projects and 3.1 GW of distributed solar generation.
On June 6, 2020, the association calculated that the solar PV capacity of Brazil had reached 5.76 GW with 2.92 GW of utility scale and 2.83 GW of rooftop and small scale solar. The latest numbers show distributed generation grew considerably in the intervening period.
In the first half of 2020, Brazil installed more than 1.38 GW of new capacity, as per the association after ending 2019 with a cumulative of 4.53 GW. In 2019, Brazil installed a record of 2.1 GW.
Between January 2020 and June 2020 alone, more than 1 GW of distributed generation capacity was added, said ABSOLAR referring to statistics from the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), which is commendable considering the strong impact of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. On January 22, 2020, ABSOLAR said cumulative distributed solar power generation capacity of Brazil had gone up to 2 GW with residential market share of 72%.
Considering the historic trend of solar PV installations in the country, the second half of 2020 is likely to see a higher volume of distributed generation capacity coming online which ABSOLAR sees could be over 2 GW. Thus it looks like Brazil could see another record solar year despite the virus.
Last month, the Brazilian government approved a new decree to ease green projects financing which the Ministry of Mines and Energy believes can support over 8 GW of PV capacity out of 36 GW expected over 10 years (see Brazilian Decree To See Over 8 GW PV In 10 Years).