High electricity bill makes distributed solar generation rise 53% by November

The increase in electricity bill of Brazilians has driven their own generation of solar energy on roofs, facades and small plots in the country.

According to a mapping by Portal Solar Franquias, the installed power in consumer systems jumped from 4.7 gigawatts (GW) accumulated in January this year to 7.3 GW by the beginning of November, a growth of 53% in the period.

This Friday (12), Brazil reached the 12 GW mark of installed capacity from the source, between distributed and centralized generation, the latter formed by projects that compete in the government’s electricity auctions.

According to the analysis of Portal Solar, based on data from the Brazilian Association of Solar Energy (Absolar) and the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), the solar energy market has been increasingly resilient to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While many sectors lost revenue in the last 18 months, those in the solar segment saw their sales increase in this period.

“The evolution of this market confirms that Brazilian consumers are increasingly aware of the need to seek sustainable solutions to face high electricity tariffs and climate change”, explains Portal Solar CEO Rodolfo Meyer.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), electricity tariffs have accumulated an increase of 30% in the last 12 months in Brazil. In 2021 alone, the increase is 25%, largely due to the water crisis.

The expectation is for more readjustments in the electricity bill next year, due to the intensive use of fossil thermoelectric plants, which has already generated a bill of more than R$ 5 billion for consumers to pay in 2022.

Until August, the total bill of charges (sum of all items) to be passed on to next year’s rates is close to R$ 10 billion, according to a survey by Portal Solar Franquias, based on preliminary data from the Chamber of Commercialization of Electric Energy (CCEE).

There is also the possibility of contracting a new loan of R$ 15 billion in order to be able to cover all the energy generation costs.

For 2022, the projection is for an even greater acceleration due to the continued increase in energy tariffs. The solar market is also likely to be driven by regulatory issues.

By the end of this year, the expectation is that the GD’s legal framework (PL 5829/19) will be approved by the government, bringing predictability and legal certainty to the market.

“We are at an accelerated pace of growth despite the adversities of the national economic scenario. For 2022, not even the rise in equipment prices should stop solar energy in Brazil,” said Meyer.

Portal Solar already has 82 franchises sold in 6 months as a franchisor and expects to reach 100 units in 2021.