Brazil Solar Energy Below Grid Electricity

July 4th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

According to Brazil’s national energy agency, Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica, electricity from home solar panels is now cheaper than electricity from 10 of the country’s electricity providers.

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

And the price for solar panels is even lower with available government support! “Costs for solar energy fall to 586 reais a megawatt-hour if homeowners use a government credit program called Proesco to buy panels.”

Unfortunately, I can’t read the report, as it is in Portuguese. But I’m sure the assumption regarding lifespan of the solar panels underestimates their actual lifespan. 30 years should be the minimum lifespan used these days, but I’ve never seen anyone use even that many, and most seem to use 20 years. In other words, the cost of solar is probably even much cheaper than above in reality.

Good news for those going solar and for those looking to go solar in Brazil.

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Image Credit: brazil solar panels via EPE report

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Tags: Brazil, brazil solar, brazil solar grid parity, Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica, Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica solar, quickies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

jburt56

This is an important trend–solar may be more affordable sooner in countries with underdeveloped grids. Watch India’s solar program.
Bob_Wallace

Who makes those great big flexible panels in the picture?

And idea of $/watt and efficiency?
- Ross
  
  Not an exact answer to that but here’s another quote
  
  “Spurred by persistent oversupply of photovoltaic modules, or by the economic crisis that has particularly affecting European countries, the price reduction of crystalline silicon modules in “spot” market (wholesale) reached between January and November 2011, 42% and 31% in China Germany. Also, the thin-film technology (TF) is showing falling prices, and reached € 0.78 / W p (Figure 21)”
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Not sure. Caption (page 5) was: Fig. 4. Células de filme fino
  Fonte: Deltaenergie maybe this company (see a lot of deltaenergie sites on a google search): http://www.deltaenergie.it/
Edgar

Good for Brazil !! http://www.construccioninvernaderos.com
Ronald Brak

The below parity cost of point of use solar combined with Brazil’s huge hydro electric capacity means it shoouldn’t be long before Brazil’s electricity sector is more or less entirely renewable. It also removes pressure to construct new dams.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  think it as at 88% last i wrote about it.
  - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
    
    woops, 88.8%
    
    http://cleantechnica.com/2012/06/18/88-8-brazilian-electricity-2011-renewable-sources/
Ross

Here’s a quote courtesy of the aforementioned translation.

“Considering, however, the trend in costs and prices of solar modules and electricity rates in some markets, it is estimated that parity pricing in the residential sector Europe can be achieved in the second half of this decade in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom”
electricity rates in some markets, it is estimated that parity pricing in the residential sector
Europe can be achieved in the second half of this decade in Italy, France, GermanSpain and the United Ki
Ross

Uploading the PDF file to translate.google.com produces a more or less intelligible translation.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  thanks. didn’t realize i could upload PDFs
LoganstoneRugburn59

http://goo.gl/x5O4d