Category: Renewable Energies

Overview of current business opportunities in the Brazilian Renewable Energies industries

Solar equipment suppliers postpone investments awaiting tax incentives

Estádio do Maracanã Postponements

The growth potential of solar energy in Brazil already attracts equipment manufacturers and eight months after the first successful auction in the segment, four companies have already committed to the installation of solar-power plants in the country. But the government’s delay in approving tax incentives for the industry has led to the reduction or postponement of plans and remains an obstacle to higher investment attraction.

 

BYD delaying solar investment

China’s BYD had planned to invest R$150 million to set up a module factory in Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo. The company had planned to start production in the first half of 2016, with capacity of 400 megawatts, but now it’s more likely that this amount will be reduced to only 150MW, says Adalberto Maluf, BYD director of government relations and marketing.

The first company to announce plans to install a plant in Brazil, SunEdison has not yet started taking the facilities of the paper. The American company entered into a supply agreement with Renova Energy, which sold 107 MWp in the auction of October 2014, and at the time, intended to invest about $ 30 million to build a module assembly plant and tracking devices solar, so-called “trackers”.

Also in the Northeast, the PB Construction signed a memorandum of understanding to build a panel unit in the port of Pecém, in Ceará, with total investment of R$ 40 million. According to the director of new business of the company, Luiz Eduardo de Moraes, there is a partnership with Chinese investors, whose names can not be disclosed.

In May Bloomberg reported that panel makers such as Yingli had put local manufacturing plans on hold following a 20% drop in the value of the Brazilian real since the country released the results of its first solar auction in October 2014.

Six of eight auction winners last year have yet to announce how they will procure panels for their projects, said the report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brazil to attract companies to invest in solar energy at Intersolar Europe

Matchmaking at Intersolar Europe

Intersolar exhibition Europe 2014

Intersolar is the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners

Brazil is looking for companies that can strengthen the industry supply chain of solar energy in the country. In this sense, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) promotes an event at Intersolar, in partnership with the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar), aiming to bring information to entrepreneurs about the Brazilian potential in this sector, Government incentives, credit lines and the best locations to install power generation plants and parks.

On June 11, a seminar will take place at Messe München from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Room 11, with representatives of key government agencies and companies successfully established in the Brazilian market. In the afternoon, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., at Room 13, there will be a matchmaking session between Federal and State Governments with companies, and between companies and potential investors.

In addition to Apex-Brasil, the event will also gather representatives of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) and from the State Governments of Pernambuco, Minas Gerais and Bahia. Business associations from Brazil and Germany will also participate in the seminar: the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar), and the Solar Association of Germany (BSW-Solar). In addition, companies successfully established in Brazil will take part in the event, such as the Sowitec Group and the joint venture SunEdison & Renova, presenting the audience their experience in the Brazilian market.

Context

The Brazilian Federal Government announced two more solar energy auctions for 2015. The first should occur later in June. According to the rules, the auction winners will have three years to start offering their services. “Brazil is living an effervescent moment for the sector. There is a demand and there is time for them to settle in the country. It is worth remembering that, in addition to the Government-contracted energy, there is a growing consumer interest for this type of technology,” explains the investment manager of Apex-Brasil, Maria Luisa Cravo. “We want to show the opportunities we have to those companies who have not yet decided to establish in Brazil. This industry is one of our priorities in foreign investment attraction”, she says.

Last year, the Brazilian Government held the first solar energy auction. It was the most attended in history, with about eight hours of negotiations. The auction attracted investments of approximately R$ 7.1 billion, which will also be used in wind power projects. As a result of the 2014 Reserve Energy Auction held in October, the Energy Research Company (EPE) foresees the construction of 31 additional solar energy installations. The solar energy enterprises have a total installed capacity of 889.6 MW.

In May 2015, the BYD Group, from China, announced the first plant for photovoltaic panels in Brazil, which will be installed in São Paulo. The goal of the company is to produce 400 MW of solar panels per year.

Invest in Brasil – Photovoltaics (Intersolar Europe 2015)
June 11, 2015
From: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location – Munich, Germany – Messe München
Rooms: 11 (seminar and lunch) and 13 (matchmaking)

Solar Market Suffering in Brazil

Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) Brazil

Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) Brazil

The Brazilian real has declined 17 percent since Oct. 31, when more than a gigawatt of solar farms won contracts in the country’s first-ever national solar auction and with the slumping currency driving up import prices, developers are holding off on signing supply deals for PV panels. Manufac
Source: Solar Market Suffering in Brazil

GE to build R$60 million plant in Brazil’s Bahia

Reinaldo Garcia   CEO and president of GE Latin America

Reinaldo Garcia CEO and president of GE Latin America

General Electricplans to build a R$60 million plant in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia to assemble wind turbines as the market for wind power surges in the South American country, Reinaldo Garcia, head of the company’s operations in Latin America, said Wednesday.

The plant will be built during the next six to 12 months, Garcia told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil has seen interest in wind-power projects take off over the past decade, and has been adding about 2,000 megawatts of new wind-power capacity every year as prices for wind power fall below the costs of other sources.

GE reportedly has secured about one-fifth of the supply contracts for those Brazilian wind farms.

Wind industry is caught in a Brazilian steel-price trap

In Depth: Wind industry is caught in a Brazilian steel-price trap

High domestic steel prices are one of the main barriers to making future wind projects profitable in Brazil.

Developers are facing razor-thin margins after the two power tenders in August saw some projects awarded power-purchase contracts at less than R$100 ($58.30) per MWh.

Wind energy

High domestic steel prices are one of the main barriers to making future wind projects profitable in Brazil.

The price of steel is 50-70% higher in Brazil than on the international market. Belo Horizonte-based Usiminas — a former state-owned company privatised in the 1990s — enjoys a near monopoly on domestic steel plate supply, and the government allows it to set different prices for domestic sales and exports. At the same time, Brazil’s national development bank, BNDES, will not give developers full access to its funding unless at least 60% of a project’s equipment is produced in Brazil. That percentage is determined by weight, and towers can constitute 80% of a wind farm’s mass. Nearly all Brazilian developers depend on the bank’s cheap financing to make their projects viable, and BNDES does not consider foreign steel rolled in Brazil as local content, meaning that companies are generally unable to import from abroad.

Last year, BNDES was considering an exception to its rules for imported steel, but the proposal was shelved in August. Brazil’s steel industry is facing strong competition from imports, putting pressure on margins, so producers fiercely oppose any relaxation of local-content rules. “Clearly, if you want to play in Brazil, you have to get access to BNDES financing, and that exposes you to these steel prices,” says Brian Gaylord, an analyst with MAKE Consulting in Chicago, who specialises in the Brazilian market.

He says the high cost of steel plate makes towers disproportionately expensive in Brazil. Gaylord says some companies experimented with importing Asian steel for about a third of their requirements, but the strategy needs high volumes to create any real price advantage.

Wind turbine manufacturers, developers and industry representatives are highly critical of government policy, and are increasingly looking to concrete towers as an alternative.

“Obviously they [Brazil] want to build a steel industry and they are doing it by artificially raising prices,” Steve Sawyer, secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council, tells Recharge. “It’s good for the steel industry, but bad for everyone else.”

“It’s the prerogative of a sovereign state,” says Alstom’s vice-president for wind, Alfonso Faubel. “Steel is used in development, so if you want development to take place you are always going to have certain conditions of local content.”

But Edgard Corrochano, Mercosur director at Gamesa, which was one of the most aggressive bidders in the recent tenders, says he hopes the situation will change, with Usiminas becoming more competitive. “Either [Usiminas] gets with the programme and they have international prices in Brazil, or we are going to see a tendency to go to concrete towers. And as soon as that happens, it’ll be very difficult for it to come back to steel.”

Other manufacturers point out that steel towers, as well as being expensive, are difficult and costly to transport.

Suzlon Brazil chief executive Arthur Lavieri says: “Almost everybody is talking about concrete, and it’s not only because steel prices in Brazil are completely insane, but also because bringing steel tubes of 100-120 metres 3,000km from the biggest factories is simply not possible.”

However, concrete towers need to be made on site, which can be expensive.

“To take advantage of price advantages you need a big project size,” says Gaylord.

Leading local turbine manufacturer Wobben Windpower is experimenting with using mobile concrete plants to build the towers, while Vestas sales director Marcelo Hutschinski says his company can offer concrete towers for wind farms larger than 100MW.

Officials at some turbine manufacturers admit there are drawbacks to concrete, and say they have few alternatives to buying expensive steel.

Source: RECHARGE; Ben Backwell, Rio de Janeiro; Published: Thursday, September 15 2011

Brazil garnering solar power industry attention: pv-magazine

Brazil garnering solar power industry attention: pv-magazine

One country garnering attention, without even being present at the PV-EU International Fair summit in Hamburg, Germany: Brazil!!!

A large number of equipment manufacturers are predicting the rise of the South American country in the photovoltaic industry. With that said, however, it does not mean that China will be playing second fiddle.

 

via Brazil garnering EU PVSEC’s attention: pv-magazine.

Gehrlicher Ecoluz Solar do Brasil to build a solar power system on a soccer stadium in Brazil

The project of the investor Coelba is the first solar power system on a soccer stadium in Latin America.

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. In August 2011, Gehrlicher Ecoluz Solar do Brasil S.A., a joint venture of the German photovoltaics specialist Gehrlicher Solar AG and the Brazilian environmental technology group Ecoluz Participações S.A., was awarded an international tender by the Brazilian utility Coelba. Solar power system on the roof of Pituaçu Stadium in Brazil

The contract includes planning and construction of the first photovoltaic system on a soccer stadium in Latin America. Continue reading