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The Boa Sorte I photovoltaic plant, located in Paracatu, Minas Gerais, with 44.1 MW, was responsible for the milestone. For this year, Aneel projects a total growth of 10.1 GW, of which 4.9 GW must be solar. This should be the first year that solar leads the expansion of centralized generation capacity, ahead of wind.
With the entry into commercial operation of the 44.1MW Boa Sorte I photovoltaic plant in Paracatu (MG), Brazil has surpassed the 200 GW mark of installed centralized generation (GC) capacity, of which 84, 25% comes from renewable sources and 15.75% from non-renewable sources and 1% from nuclear sources, according to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel).
Currently, the three largest renewable sources that make up the Brazilian electricity matrix are hydraulic (55%), wind (14.8%) and biomass (8.4%) and the largest non-renewable sources are natural gas (9 %), oil (4%) and coal (1.75%). Solar energy has a 6.29% share in Brazils centralized generation matrix, with 12.6 GW installed.
If we include distributed generation (DG), with another 27.5 GW of installed capacity, the sources share of the total installed capacity in Brazil rises to more than 17% of the matrix. Aneel, however, does not add the DG and GC capacity because the electricity produced is used differently.
“When Aneel began its activities in 1997, the installed capacity in the country was about 60 GW. That is, in less than three decades, this figure has more than tripled. And there are still more. Less than 20 years ago, sources such as wind and solar - until then considered alternatives - did not yet appear in energy generation statistics. Thanks to a series of successful public policies and Aneels rigorous work in regulating and supervising generation, these sources have dominated the expansion of supply in the country in recent years," says Aneels general director, Sandoval Feitosa. .
Aneels forecast is that 10.1 GW of centralized plants will be added until the end of 2024, the second largest expansion in the historical series, after the 10.3 GW of installed capacity in the National Interconnected System (SIN) in 2023 .
Of that total, according to the agency, 4.9 GW must come from solar energy, followed by 3.8 GW from wind. Biomass, fossil and hydroelectric sources should also total 1.1 GW, 300 MW and 159 MW. If expectations are met, it will be the first year in which centralized solar plants lead the expansion, ahead of wind power, which did so in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Hydroelectricity, which previously represented more than 80% of centralized generation capacity in Brazil, has been losing ground to new renewables such as wind and solar, and the National Interconnected System has been gaining new characteristics, such as highly fluctuating generation from intermittent sources. In 2024, the loading ramp could be between 25 GW and 30 GW. For this reason, the country has begun to hold capacity reserve auctions to respond to these fluctuations, first by contracting thermal power plants, but which in the future must accommodate the contracting of storage. |
