Latin America PV News Snippets

• Enphase Energy has entered the Brazilian solar market with IQ 7+™ microinverters
• Enel X to build 11 MW solar PV capacity for Brazil's Banco Bradesco and bring it online by June 2022
• IRENA sees wind, solar and hydrogen as enabling Paraguay's energy mix and boosting its economic development

Enphase enters Brazil: US based microinverter company Enphase Energy has expanded to Brazil, a country it has entered with its IQ 7+ microinverters. The company will start shipping these products across the Latin American nation from October 2021, catering to both residential and small commercial installers. Enphase said these microinverters will be outfitted with Enphase Envoy communications gateways to connect an Enphase-based solar system to the Enphase Enlighten monitoring platform.

Enel X to build 11 MW solar in Brazil: Enel X will build 9 distributed generation PV projects in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Ceara and Goais in Brazil for Brazilian financial services company called Banco Bradesco with a combined capacity of 11 MW. Bradesco will purchase power from this capacity for 10 years. More than 18,000 solar panels will start generating electricity by June 2022 and provide electricity to more than 300 branches of Bradesco in 3 states, reported local media.

IRENA report on Paraguay: The Renewables Readiness Assessment: Paraguay report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) sees potential for wind and solar energy, along with hydrogen to help the Latin American nation diversify its energy mix and boost its economic development. The report sees high solar energy potential throughout the country that it believes can decarbonize end-use sectors and its isolated regions, particularly in Alto Paraguay, Boquerón and Concepción. Under the National Electricity Administration's (ANDE) Generation Master Plan 2021-2040, Paraguay plans to construct 5 solar PV plants with 100 MW capacity, along with 9 hybrid PV-diesel project representing 8.15 MW capacity. Paraguay aims to become a green hydrogen producer and regional exporter of the same with the help of International Development Bank (IDB). This, pointed out IRENA, is a motivation for Paraguay to pursue a higher share of renewables in its energy mix.

Currently the country is heavily dependent on hydropower and biomass energy sources accounting for 82% of its final energy supply, which it is also exporting to other countries. However, increasing demand for energy is also carving a larger role for fossil fuels while hydropower resources depend on climate change factors.