Brazil's installed solar capacity now tops 19 GW

September 16 (Renewables Now) -
Less than one month after Brazil surpassed 18 GW of installed photovoltaic (PV) power, the country's solar capacity tops 19 GW, local solar PV association Absolar said in a recent update.

According to the association, solar power now accounts for 9.6% of the country's total power mix. In the period from January until early September, Brazil's installed solar capacity rose from 13 GW to 19 GW. In the last 120 days, the growth rate amounted to 1 GW per month.

In the self-generation area, Brazil has over 12.9 GW of solar arrays, making this technology the number one choice for this type of installations.

Large-scale solar plants account for the remaining 6.1 GW.

Absolar noted that solar installations have brought in investments of BRL 99.7 billion (USD 19.2bn/EUR 19.2bn) and created more than 570,100 local jobs since 2012.

(BRL 1.0 = USD 0.193/EUR 0.193)