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.
Connect with me on Google+ or your favorite social networking site.
Image Credit: brazil solar panels via EPE report
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
