EN 
PT_BR 
Christmas – the festival of the year in which the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated in the Christian tradition – has arrived and, once again, promises to bring together millions of families around the world.
In Brazil, the celebration is one of the most traditional, to the point that some municipalities carry the influence of the date in their own origins.
This is the case of Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte, and the small municipalities of Natalândia and Feliz Natal, in the interior of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso, respectively.
In these cities, as well as across the country, the expansion of distributed solar generation has also been growing exponentially, according to data from ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency).
In Natal, installed photovoltaic power practically doubled this year: from 19.7 MW to more than 38.2 MW, between January 1st and December 22nd.
The municipality also has over 3,410 systems installed on roofs, facades and small and medium-sized plots of land, of which just over 2,000 were installed in 2021 alone.
The metropolis is also currently the fourth northeastern city with the highest volume of solar power coupled to the grid, behind only Teresina (PI), Fortaleza (CE) and Petrolina (PE), which account for 71.7 MW; 70.9 MW and 39.2 MW, respectively.
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The municipality of Natalândia, with less than 3,400 inhabitants, two years ago didn't even know what it meant to have a solar system. The first two plants in GD were only installed at the end of 2019.
Since then, two more projects have been implemented in 2020 and another seven in 2021, enough to make the small town in Minas Gerais reach, a few weeks ago, its first installed MW.
In Feliz Natal, the atmosphere is also celebratory when it comes to solar DG. In October, the small city of Mato Grosso, with 13.5 thousand inhabitants, surpassed the mark of 100 installed systems.
Currently, the number is already at 102 units – an increase of more than 100% in relation to the 50 photovoltaic systems that existed in the city in January this year.
In total, the locality already has 2.2 MW installed, of which almost half (45.1%) are from installations located on rural properties in the municipality.
In general terms, solar DG in Brazil reached the 8 GW of installed power, with more than 720 thousand systems connected to the network and installed in homes, industries, businesses, public buildings, rural properties and service companies.
