Solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in Brazil is expected to increase by 11 GW in 2024

Photovoltaics (PV) in Brazil started in 2024 with 37 GW of installed capacity and currently stands at over 46 GW, and continues to grow.

Solar photovoltaic generation is expected to add a total of 11 gigawatts (GW) to the country’s installed electricity capacity in 2024. Photovoltaics started the year with 37 GW of installed capacity and is currently at over 46 GW. By the end of the year, the expectation is to increase by another 2 GW, adding large plants (centralized generation, contracted in government auctions) and small solar systems on rooftops and small plots of land (distributed generation).

The pace of expansion of the source should remain strong, assesses Ronaldo Koloszuk, chairman of the board of directors of ABSOLAR, which compiled the data. He believes that electricity demand in the medium and long term should grow significantly with new technologies, increased consumption in data centers and low-carbon hydrogen production, which should drive large-scale projects, Valor points out.

Distributed photovoltaic generation, which accounts for two-thirds of installed photovoltaic power, will continue to drive the growth of the source, Koloszuk points out, due to the immense potential that has not yet been explored, reports Canal Solar. “Out of every hundred electricity bills in the country, four are now supplied by solar energy. In Australia there are 30. Therefore, solar energy in Brazil still has a long way to go, being a segment that has many opportunities for everyone.”

Apparently, solar expansion will continue at a good pace. But companies and entities in the renewable sources segment already estimate losses of almost one billion reais this year due to cuts in wind and solar photovoltaic energy generation established by the National Electric System Operator (ONS), reports Valor. In the solar energy sector, companies have accumulated losses of R$ 237 million, while in the wind energy segment, losses exceed R$ 700 million.

In time 1: The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) will launch this year a program to encourage the exploration of minerals critical to the energy transition, such as lithium, copper and nickel. A government source told Folha that the plan is already ready and that the department is waiting for the best political moment to launch it. Among its main points is the promotion of credit for mining companies that want to research, extract and transform these minerals. In the case of lithium, for example, most of the mineral extracted here goes to China without any processing for the production of batteries for electric vehicles.

At time 2: With 304 wind farms, Rio Grande do Norte reached the 10 GW mark of installed wind power generation capacity, enough to supply approximately 5 million homes, or almost 20 million people, report g1 and Tribuna do Norte. For comparison, the state has just over 3.3 million inhabitants and consumes an average of 1 GW, according to Neoenergia Cosern. With the current infrastructure, the state accounts for about 30% of Brazil’s wind power generation capacity, according to the Rio Grande do Norte government.

At time 3: On Monday (26/8), the Amapá Wind and Solar Atlas was launched. With an investment of R$ 5 million, the study maps the areas available for new investments in renewable energy in the Amapá territory. The state is a pioneer in this type of mapping in the Northern Region, according to g1.