The auction will take place on July 29 and is the first of two national solicitations for solar PV to be held this year in Brazil. 295 PV projects have obtained technical accreditation to participate. One of the largest PV plants built in Brazil to date is a 3 MW plant in Santa Catarina by Tractabel. Brazil’s Power Research Company (EPE) has granted technical accreditation for 295 PV projects with a total capacity of 9.2 GW for the reserve auction which will be held on July 29, according to a press release. The single largest number of projects approved by EPE are located in Bahia, a total of 61 with a combined capacity of 1.6 GW. 42 accredited projects are located in Piauí, for a total of 1.4 GW. In São Paulo 44 solar projects are located, with a capacity of 1.3 GW and in Mato Grosso do Sul there are 21 projects for a total of 1.2 GW. There are also accredited projects in the states of Minas Gerais (27 projects totaling 987 MW), Rio Grande do Norte (33 projects, 960 MW) and four other states with less than 600 MW each. The winning projects in this auction should begin delivering electricity in roughly two years, July 1, 2018. The solar projects will be awarded 20 year contracts to supply electricity. In addition to the PV projects, in this first 2016 reserve auction contracts for hydroelectric generation will be auctioned. EPE has indicated that it will grant accreditation for 133 hydroelectric projects of different types and with a combined capacity of 985 MW. This auction is the fourth national auction with a special category for PV projects and the first of two auctions for PV which are scheduled for this year. The other auction with a category for PV, the second reserve auction this year, will be held on October 28. The projects awarded in this second auction will begin supplying electricity in July 2019. To date three national auctions for solar PV have been held in Brazil and these have awarded contracts for a total of around 3 GW of projects. Translation by Christian Roselund. The original in Spanish can be found on the pv magazine Latinoamérica website.
Brazil has granted technical accreditation to 295 photovoltaic (PV) projects to participate in an auction that will feature 9.2GW of solar projects. The auction will take place on 29 July and is one of two scheduled for 2016. Brazil’s Power Research Company, EPE, has approved projects in Bahia, Piauí, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, among other locations. The auction will also feature contracts for hydroelectric generation with a combined capacity of 988MW.