Solar Pilot Project Brazil (BMUB)

Project description

Project title: Solar Pilot Project Brazil (Eletrosul) 
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB)
Country: Brazil
Lead executing agency: Brazilian power utility Eletrosul Centrais Elétricas S.A. 
Overall term: 2009 to 2013

Context

The least favourable location in Brazil still enjoys a rate of solar radiation over 30 per cent higher than Germany’s sunniest city, Freiburg. This constitutes huge potential that has so far remained largely untapped. There is limited awareness among the general public and politicians about decentralised technologies such as photovoltaics (PV).

Objective

A pilot photovoltaic plant with a peak output of 1 megawatt (MWp) is being operated by the energy utility Eletrosul.

Approach

In its Solar Pilot Project Brazil, the energy utility Eletrosul is building a 1 megawatt PV pilot plant – the first large-scale PV plant in South America. This will quintuple the output of the grid-connected photovoltaic systems currently installed in Brazil. Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), GIZ will support the project through the following measures

• Transfer of know-how: training partners and technical advisory support in planning, installing, operating and maintaining PV systems
• Public relations: communicating the ‘green electricity’ marketing concept, informing the general public about the potentials of solar technologies
• Regulatory framework: exchanging expertise with Brazil’s national energy agency ANEEL regarding net metering, a remuneration model for electricity generated by PV plants

The project is being implemented in cooperation with KfW Development Bank.

Results achieved so far

The 1 MWp pilot photovoltaic plant illustrates the potential of solar energy and decentralised power generation to the general public. The introduction of net metering has created an appropriate regulatory framework for photovoltaic plants of up to 1 MWp. Electricity producers can feed locally produced energy into the power grid and thereby lower electricity bills.

The media, policy-makers, private sector and the energy sector have been made aware of the photovoltaic issue, forming a basis for further improving the framework conditions for decentralised power generation.