Future looks green for Brazil’s renewable energy sector

The report, by GBI Research, says that the increasing demand for electricity in this rapidly expanding South American economy is driving up the country’s cumulative installed capacity – but Brazil will continue to rely on eco-friendly power generation to support expansion.

Brazil’s total cumulative installed capacity in 2011 was 120,553 Megawatts (MW), with a massive 80% represented by renewable energy (if large hydro is included). Approximately 70% of this was accounted for by hydropower, while other alternative power sources, biomass, wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) and small hydro, made up 10% in total.

Excluding the substantial large hydropower sector, Brazil’s renewable installed capacity is expected to leap from 13,260 MW in 2012 to 38,015 MW by the end of the decade, climbing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14%.

Proving one of the fasted growing energy sources in Brazil’s energy mix is wind. Although contributing a relatively meager 2,769 MW to Brazil’s total installed capacity in 2012, the government’s plans to take advantage of the untapped offshore market could see the this portion reach 19,420 MW by 2020.

Although it only operates onshore wind farms at present, Brazil aims to capitalize on the South’s strong offshore gales, boosting both wind power’s installed capacity and its popularity with investors.

GBI Research predicts the county’s solar PV market to display the most explosive growth in Brazil’s renewables industry, albeit from a much smaller foundation. Growing at a massive CAGR of 59%, the solar PV sector is forecast to climb exponentially from an installed capacity of 31 MW in 2012 to 1,276 MW in a period of just eight years.