“The process of reducing the cost of batteries will be faster than that of photovoltaic energy.” This is the analysis of Bernardo Marangon, a specialist in regulation and market. During his participation in the webinar “Are PV projects with batteries possible in Brazil?”, performed by Canal Solar last Tuesday (6), he highlighted the importance of batteries in the Brazilian electricity sector.
“Five years ago the price of a photovoltaic project was much higher than today. It's true that we had a wave, it was low and now it's a little more expensive depending on the dollar. However, if we look at the past, the price has dropped a lot,” he pointed out.
“However, the distribution of equipment did not exist in the past. Today, we have large distributors, we have a lot of competition, integrators and companies. Therefore, the trend towards battery reduction should be faster than solar”, explained Marangon.
Still according to the expert, the interest in having more efficient technologies and business models is very high. “We are getting ahead of ourselves and bringing this topic up, as I believe that, in a short time, throughout Brazil, it will make sense to invest in batteries”, he emphasized.
Regarding large-scale applications, the executive believes that regulation is necessary so that ancillary services can be better remunerated and have a more interesting viability, as what we have today is the PLD Horário, which began operating in January this year.
Read more: Energy sector experts analyze PLD transition Time
“There is still not a big difference between the load levels, which is the famous “buy low and sell high”. So, during the day you have to have a delta that is interesting to store at some point and unload at another,” he said.
Use of batteries in centralized generation
Throughout the webinar, Bernardo Marangon highlighted that storage will also be very important for centralized generation. “What we have seen in the development of large projects is a shortage of power flow. You look at a connection and there are more than 10 GW of photovoltaic projects competing for that connection.”
“So, if you have battery systems that can better manage this moment when solar is being generated, you will be able to make more use of these connection points and make new energies viable”, he emphasized.
Furthermore, he said that batteries will be essential to move away from a fossil fuel energy matrix and transform it into a sustainable matrix, which is the case of electric mobility, for example, which will require investments in the network and generation. “In this case, batteries will be essential for us to be able to make the most of existing assets, both in transmission and distribution,” he concluded.
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