Brazil’s newly-appointed minister of mines and energy Fernando Coelho Filho has told members of the electricity industry that renewable energy will be one of his focus areas in the coming weeks and months.
Brazilian public bank Banco do Nordeste (Northeast Bank) has expanded the financing options available from its Northeast Constitutional Financing Fund (FNE) to include solar PV projects, wind farms, small hydro and biomass sources utilization plants.
Developers of the majority of projects awarded in Brazil’s first solar-only tender round in 2014 have submitted a request to the regulator to delay construction by two years, according to a report.
Yaskawa – Solectria Solar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of robot and industrial motor company Yaskawa America, is planning to install a 500MW central solar inverter manufacturing line within an existing factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to help support the Latin American PV market.
Brazil’s solar association (Absolar) and think-tank Strategies Centre for Natural Resources and Energy (CERNE) have signed a strategic partnership agreement aimed at boosting PV deployment in the north-east regions of Brazil.
Brazil’s solar energy sector will create between 60,000 and 90,000 new job opportunities up to 2018, according to the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar).
The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is to hold an auction for solar energy in August this year requiring a total investment of more than BRL1 billion (US$253 million), according to the state's government.
Brazil’s energy regulator ANEEL has approved a further nine projects from its 1.5GW Reserve Energy Auction held last November, bringing the total of qualified renewable energy projects to 52 out of the 53 awarded.
