Risen Energy executive talks about REN 482

Risen is one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic modules and is strongly committed to the Brazilian market

3 minute(s) of reading

Following up on a series of testimonials collected from the main companies in the solar sector in Brazil, we spoke with Fernando Castro, deputy sales director at Risen Energy Brazil, responsible for structuring the company's sales channel in Brazil.

Risen is one of the world's leading manufacturers of photovoltaic modules and is betting heavily on the Brazilian market, believing that the solar source is here to stay in Brazil.

Previous articles in this series: Fronius follows changes to RN 482 It is Brazil is not for beginners: Solar energy under the hat of uncertainty

Castro's opinion on REN 482

According to recent data, centralized and distributed photovoltaic generation correspond to 1.3% and 0.6%, respectively, of Brazil's total energy matrix, which means very little overall.

Therefore, I believe that the changes proposed by ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) are mistaken from a technical and strategic point of view, going against the market, as they are overprotecting concessionaires and distributors in a market that is still very small (less than 2% of the country's total electricity generation).

Furthermore, we must consider that photovoltaic energy appears as the best environmental alternative to replace sources such as thermoelectric, mineral coal and nuclear.

Photovoltaic plants have a short implementation time (typically less than two years) and can be very economically advantageous for the country, allowing the rapid increase in electricity generation capacity, while plants of other types take more than 5 years to build. its construction.

Furthermore, investments in solar generation can be made by the private sector, making public investments unnecessary.

Considering the situation and history of the Brazilian electricity sector, when the expected recovery of the economy and industry occurs (like what happened in the blackouts of 2001 and 2013), there will be a lack of electricity and new plants will need to be built.

The advancement of the insertion of solar sources, whether in distributed generation or centralized generation, can reduce the impacts of economic growth on the electricity sector, minimizing a new risk of electricity rationing.

Although I recognize that the rules for solar generation need to be discussed, I think that at this moment the discussion is inappropriate.

Perhaps this discussion makes sense at a time when photovoltaic generation starts to represent more than 10% of the total electrical generation matrix.

At the current level, while the solar source represents only 2% of total electricity generation in Brazil, the discussion about changes to the rules for distributed generation (in which the solar source predominates) seems to me to be mainly a discussion with the aim of creating barriers commercials, totally out of line with the global trend of encouraging solar sources.

Finally, I hope that ANEEL staff listen to the wishes of the population and companies in the solar energy sector and have the necessary wisdom to suspend this change initiative out of time, giving way to a broader and more detailed discussion, considering not only financial aspects , but also environmental and social, remembering that the photovoltaic solar energy sector employs many people in Brazil.