Brazil’s Minas Gerais in line for PV manufacturing plant

The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is in line to become home to the country’s first PV cell and module manufacturing plant.

The state’s deputy governor, Alberto Pinto Coelho, made the announcement following a fact finding mission to France’s National Solar Energy Institute, INES.

In an official statement, Coelho said that in addition to cells and modules, the proposed facility would also produce polysilicon, but gave no further details on this or on its envisaged capacity.

The facility would be built under the state’s renewable energy incentive programme launched in August, which offers tax breaks to companies looking to build facilities for factories producing components for renewable energy plants, such as solar modules.

Minas Gerais is looking to make greater use of renewable energy to power its mining industry.

PV has not yet taken off in Brazil due partly to the country’s high level of hydropower penetration.

However, solar has been included in Brazil’s national energy auctions for the first time this year and attracted significant interest.

Earlier this week a consortium of industry bodies called for Brazil to hold solar-only auctions for up to 1.5GW of capacity in an effort to encourage the country’s adoption of solar.