According to information from the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar), in January different Brazilian regions, located in 16 states, reached milestones with distributed generation (DG) of energy. This type of energy can be installed on roofs of homes, businesses, industries and public buildings in the country. There were 76 municipalities reaching new powers with distributed generation.
Among these municipalities that recorded generation records were: Manaus (AM) with 90 Megawatts; Foz do Iguaçu and Maringá (PR), both with 80 MW; Belém (PA), Caxias do Sul (RS) and São Paulo (SP), with 70 MW; Campinas (SP) and Maceió (AL), with 60 MW; Novo Hamburgo, Porto Alegre, Santa Cruz do Sul, Santa Maria (all in RS), in addition to Serra (ES), reached 40 MW of generation. According to Absolar, since 2012, the country has not registered such a high number in GD.
Also in January, according to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), the photovoltaic matrix added 364.1 MW to the Brazilian energy matrix, which contributed to the generation expansion record in the first month of 2023. In 2022, only solar distributed generation totaled around 6.6 GW of power in the country, according to Aneel. In 2021, that number was 3.5 GW of power, which makes last year one of the best for solar power generation.
With the advantage of ensuring clean generation and its potential to reduce costs in the medium term, generating solar energy for own use has been an option for companies of all sizes. The distributed generation system is the chosen model, due to its possibility of complementing or even replacing the energy matrix of organizations. This is attested by the administrator and business assistant of a banking institution, Dayner da Silva Diniz.
According to him, companies have been installing mini solar plants on the roofs of their offices. One of the tactics to ensure cost savings with electricity is to use the total generated during the day, supplying the surplus to the electrical grid. This surplus ends up coming back in the form of consumption overnight.
“This conversion into energy credits that will be used at night generates a considerable decrease in the energy bill, even exceeding the amount of the bill in credits, which can be used in other consumer units, reducing the bill through remote generation” , explains.
Bank financing can guarantee the migration to the solar energy matrix
For companies that want to make this energy generation migration, the financial and banking system offer special lines of credit. Diniz explains that one of them is the Constitutional Fund for the Development of the Midwest (FCO), aimed at undertakings in that region. This fund is operated by public banks.
“Before looking for the bank to ask for financing, the entrepreneur needs to present a project for the plant he intends to install. This project needs to be prepared by an electrical engineer and approved by the city’s electricity concessionaire”, he explains, adding that once you have the project, the access opinion and the approval report, it is possible to apply for financing at the bank. chosen. “The institution, in turn, analyzes the customer’s operation and payment capacity. When everything is right, the institution approves the financing, which has very friendly grace and payment terms”, he adds.
According to Dayner Diniz, within FCO financing, the grace period can reach three years and the payment period can be up to 144 months including grace period, with fixed interest rates of less than 1% per month. He points out that the investment made by the borrower in solar distributed generation can be fully recovered in three years.
“Through these financing facilities, this type of energy generation has become very common in the country, generating jobs and income, in addition to reducing energy costs for companies. In addition, it strengthens the country’s energy matrix so that a blackout like the one that occurred at the beginning of the century never happens again”, he concludes.
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