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.