BRAZIL BUYS BIG INTO SUN

SER Plans 600 Megawatts of Solar, Competitive Pricing By 2017
Stephan Nielsen, July 18, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"SER - Sistema de Energia Renovavel, a new venture in Brazil, is planning to build 600 megawatts of solar plants by 2020 and expects the technology to be competitively priced with other energy sources within six years…SER will have completed its first 5-megawatt photovoltaic plant in the country’s northeast next year…

"Almost none of Brazil’s electricity is generated by solar power, mainly because the
equipment is expensive…This may change if the government increases its support and manufacturing costs continue to come down…"

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"It costs about 2.5 million euros ($3.6 million) to install a megawatt of photovoltaic power in Europe, and may cost more for SER’s Brazil project because the panels will need to be imported…There are other cheaper renewable energy technologies available in Brazil…Wind farms cost about $2 million a megawatt and can generate 75 percent more electricity than similarly sized sun-powered facilities…

"…Solar radiation levels in Brazil’s sunny northeastern states of Bahia, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceara, where SER plans its projects, reach 6.5 kilowatt hours a square meter a day…[It’s] worst areas are much better than [Spain’s] best…One possible panel provider for SER’s projects is Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc. (FSLR) that has a partnership with Spain’s solar company Assyce Fotovoltaica Sociedad Ltda., which owns the other half of SER."