Brazil Solar Energy Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The Brazilian solar energy market is expected to witness a CAGR of around 5.5%, during the forecast period (2020 - 2025). It was the largest solar market in South America that contributed nearly 42% of the total South American solar energy production, in 2018. The primary drivers of the market include government initiatives, like net-metering, to promote renewable energy, to stabilize the growing carbon footprint, and to have a sustainable form of energy.

Net-metering helped customers in getting credits on the bills, by selling excess electricity produced to the grid. However, at the end of 2019, Brazil’s electricity regulator, Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL), proposed to apply a fee for solar systems with up to 5 MW of power generation capacity, which is expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period.

With the increasing electricity demand, especially from renewable sources, a number of under-construction, planned solar PV projects are likely to drive the market, during the forecast period.

Brazil, under its latest plan - Plano Decenal de Expansão de Energia (PDEE) 2027, is expected to increase its non-hydro renewable energy to 28% of its electricity generation mix by 2027. This included the increase of solar photovoltaic to 8.6 gigawatts (GW) from 2.4 GW, in 2019. Utility-scale projects and distributed solar generation projects are expected to get rolled out under various auctions, which is expected to create an opportunity for the market to grow in the future.

With a significant solar PV capacity of around 2.4 GW in 2019 and concentrated solar power (CSP) in its very initial state, solar photovoltaic (PV) is expected to dominate the Brazilian solar energy market, during the forecast period.