Brazil was the fourth fastest-growing country in solar energy in 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The strong pace of growth in implementing solar energy projects in Brazil – whether in distributed generation systems or large plants – has guaranteed the country’s fourth place in the world ranking of nations that added the most photovoltaic capacity to the electricity grid in 2021, says a mapping of the Solar Portal says, based on data released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and by the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar).

According to the survey, in 2021, Brazil added approximately 5.7 gigawatts (GW) of capacity from solar generation plants, considering both self-generation systems in homes and companies and large enterprises connected to the National Interconnected System (SIN).

Brazil was behind China, which added 52.9 GW, the United States, with 19.9 GW added, and India, with an expansion of 10.3 GW.

Compared to the total solar generation capacity of all countries, Brazil rose one position in the global ranking to 13th place. According to Absolar, the country ended last year with more than 13.6 GW of operational power from the solar source.

HISTORICAL MARK IN SOLAR SOURCE

In the previous week, the entity had announced that Brazil had surpassed the historic mark of 15 GW of operational power from solar photovoltaic sources, considering large plants and self-generation systems on rooftops, facades, and small plots of land.

Of this total, 4.97 GW come from large solar plants, equivalent to 2.6% of the Brazilian electricity matrix. On the other hand, the self-generation segment is responsible for 10.03 GW of installed capacity from the solar source. Together, large plants and small photovoltaic systems occupy fifth place in the Brazilian electricity matrix.

According to Absolar, the solar source has already brought Brazil more than R$78.5 billion (US$16.4 billion) in new investments. Large-scale projects alone have required disbursements of more than R$26 billion since 2012.

Photovoltaic mini- and microgeneration, on the other hand, have so far consumed R$52.4 billion. In this way, the industry claimed to have generated more than 450,000 jobs since 2012 and avoided the emission of 20.8 million tons of CO2 in electricity generation.