Brazil Sees 33 GW Of Solar & Wind Capacity Registered For October Auction

Originally published on Clean Techies.

Brazil has witnessed massive interest in yet another upcoming renewable energy auction despite the cancellation of a recent one.

According to a press release by the Brazilian energy agency, Empresa de Pesquisa Energética, more than 33 GW of wind and solar capacity has been registered for the auction scheduled on October 28th. The auction will see only wind and solar power projects allocated.

Empresa de Pesquisa Energética confirmed that a total of 1,192 projects have been registered for participation, including 799 wind energy projects with 20.7 GW of capacity and 393 solar projects with 12.5 GW of capacity.

The energy agency had reportedly cancelled a solar-only auction scheduled for July 29th. A massive 9.2 GW capacity was registered for participation in that auction.

In the auctions held so far, around 2 GW of solar capacity has been selected. In an auction held in November of 2015, just under 1 GW of solar capacity was auctioned at an average price of US¢7.75/kWh, which was below the ceiling price. Similarly, the solar-only auction held in August of 2015 saw an auction of 800 MW in capacity at US¢8.42/kWh.

The Brazilian government recently doubled its solar power capacity addition target for 2024. Under the 10-year Energy Plan for 2024, the government announced a target of having 7 GW of utility-scale and 1.32 GW of distributed solar capacity.

Reprinted with permission.