First Intersolar South America Summit launches as a conference event on Au-gust 15, 2012 in São Paulo.
São Paulo/Munich, May 22, 2012 – As the world’s leading exhibition series for the solar industry, Intersolar opens up the most important solar markets across the globe through its exhibitions and conferences. For the first time, the organizers are now addressing the South American solar industry, and thus one of the most exciting markets of the future, through the Intersolar South America Summit in São Paulo, Brazil.
Developments in the South American solar market, particularly in Brazil, are currently being ob-served with keen interest by companies across the international solar industry. Above all, the ques-tions commanding the spotlight surround how signals from the Brazilian government will impact on the industry and what potential the market holds for the future: In 2012, the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica, ANEEL) created its first incentive scheme for operators of private and commercial photovoltaic power plants.
A net metering system is being introduced for operators of plants with a capacity of up to one megawatt (MW). In this payment system the electricity consumed is offset against the power gen-erated, leaving only the difference to be paid. Operators of large-scale installations are also set to benefit from the agency’s new policy: In Brazil, energy producers are required to pay fees for using the power grid, and solar power from large-scale plants with capacities of up to 30 MW will soon benefit from discounts of between 50 and 80% on the usual tariffs. The Berlin-based German En-ergy Agency (dena) announced this in late April, citing the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL).
Issue of future energy supply must be urgently addressed
There are other reasons, too, why the South American market is currently the buzzword on every-one’s lips. Many countries in the region are seeing dramatic increases in energy consumption of up to 30% per year, chiefly as a result of industrial development. At the same time, in nations such as Brazil, solar power is currently on the brink of grid parity (the point at which independently-produced solar power becomes as cheap as power available on the free market). This is another factor causing governments to slowly rethink their energy policies. Countries including Ecuador and Argentina have already established feed-in tariffs for solar power, and there are even several large-scale photovoltaic projects that attest to this new approach – for instance the newly com-pleted installation on the Pituaçu soccer stadium in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, which has a capacity of 408 kilowatts (kW).
