Class C accounts for 45% of financing requests for distributed solar generation.

Class C accounted for 45% of financing requests for distributed solar generation installations in 2024, according to a survey conducted by a financial institution and highlighted by the CEO of [company name]. ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy), Rodrigo Sauaia.

The data, presented during the second of three workshops on white tariffs promoted by ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency), carried out on January 28, according to him, the progress compared to 2023, when the same institution – whose name was mentioned – had already pointed out that class C represented 41% of the requests.

According to Sauaia, this evolution confirms that distributed generation is no longer a technology restricted to high-income consumers and is now being driven mainly by middle and lower-income classes.

According to the executive, when classes C and D are combined, the volume of consumers seeking financing to install solar systems exceeds half of the total, reinforcing the perception that the technology has spread more widely in the country.

Solar financing for class C reaches 48%, says MFS

Sauaia stated that this movement dismantles the argument, common in the early years of the sector's expansion, that distributed generation would only be accessible to wealthier consumers.

Popularization

When commenting on the numbers, the president of ABSOLAR He compared the advancement of distributed generation to the trajectory of other technologies that initially had high costs and low penetration – such as cellular telephony – but became widespread over time.

According to him, the data indicates that, currently, "it is the common people" who are leading the growth of the distributed solar market in Brazil, driven especially by financing.

The speech took place during the workshop of ANEEL focused on the discussion about expanding the use of the white tariff to consumers with consumption exceeding 1.000 kWh.

Sauaia highlighted that the entity had already conducted cost-benefit studies, delivered to the agency in 2023, with a methodological proposal for calculating these impacts based on official data and computational models.

According to him, this type of methodology would allow monitoring the dynamic evolution of the sector, offering a transparent basis for evaluating the costs and benefits of distributed generation in a constantly changing scenario.

Conflict

When directly addressing the white tariff, Sauaia stated that one of the central points of the discussion lies in defining the levels and times for differentiated pricing.

For him, this is a sensitive issue because, currently, this definition is made by the distributors, which could introduce a potential conflict of interest.

The executive noted that distributors can adopt criteria that seek to protect revenue and mitigate losses associated with shifting consumption to cheaper times.

In this context, he argued that the ANEEL It could play a more neutral role in defining the time slots and parameters of the white tariff, using technical data related to the system's operation.

Sauaia's concern is that, if the tariff structure is designed inadequately, the white tariff may not generate the expected benefits or may even create distortions, affecting consumers who adopt the model without a clear predictability of gains.

Debate

Sauaia's presentation was preceded by a statement from the president of the National Council of Electricity Consumers (CONACEN), Rosimeire Costa, which contrasted with the data subsequently presented by the CEO of... ABSOLAR.

In her presentation, she offered a critical perspective on the sector's economic balance, stating that the budget is fixed and that any incentives are ultimately paid for by the consumer who remains within the regulated environment.

While acknowledging the importance of clean energy, the consumer representative pointed out that the balance is "unbalanced," as the accelerated adoption of solar power generation is being indirectly supported by lower-income classes who do not yet have access to the technology.

Rosimeire pointed out that those who do not own solar panels end up bearing the costs that finance the sector, while the average Brazilian consumer consumes only 156 kWh — a figure she described as lower than that seen in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The president of CONACEN warned of a socially difficult scenario in Brazil, where citizens in classes A or B use their electric cars charged with clean and cheap energy, while classes D, E, and F remain tied to polluting fuels and continue to pay the bill for sectoral charges.

She argued that the system's profit and loss data needs complete transparency, reiterating that vulnerable consumers can no longer foot the bill alone.

The speech served as a backdrop for Sauaia's intervention, in which he used the financing data precisely to demonstrate that access to technology is already spreading to the base of the social pyramid.

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