Brazil held its Leilão de Reserva public solar tender on August 28, and handed out over 800 MW of solar PV at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Enel Green Power was the biggest winner in the auction, walking away with three separate projects totalling 553 MW. Canadian Solar also did fairly well, being awarded five separate projects totalling 185 MW.
In total, the Brazilian government awarded capacity totalling 834 MW at an average price of 301.79 Real per megawatt-hour, or around US$0.0842/kWh — which was around 13.5% below the maximum price set for the auction.
Enel Green Power will invest $600 million into the construction of three newly awarded projects — the 103 MW Horizonte MP, the 158 MW Lapa, and the 292 MW Nova Olinda project. These are in addition to the already operational 11 MW Fontes Solar I and II — the country’s largest solar PV complex currently in operation — as well as a further 254 MW awarded to them in November 2014 for the construction of the Ituverava solar project.
“We are extremely pleased about this landmark win, thanks to which we became the number one company in the Brazilian solar industry,” said Enel Green Power’s CEO, Francesco Venturini.
“The 818 MW of total capacity won in all photovoltaic auctions launched in Brazil so far, the 700 MW won in wind power auctions and 102 MW won in hydropower auctions in the country since 2010 all offer further validation of our Latin America growth strategy, the strength of which is based on our focus on technologies that are approaching or are at grid parity, developing and delivering innovative solutions and extracting synergies with other Enel Group companies in the region.”
According to reports, other companies that were awarded project capacity under Brazil’s auction include Spain’s Solatio, US-based SunEdison, and Russia’s Renova.
