EN 
PT_BR 
At the end of the first quarter of this year, solar energy reached the mark of 5.114 GW of installed capacity in the country, an increase of 14.4% compared to the 4.470 GW at the end of 2019, points out ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy ).
According to the entity, of this total, 55%, or 2,687 GW, refer to large plants, and the remaining 2,427 GW refer to more than 208,300 mini or microgeneration systems.
“The expansion observed in the first three months of this year is in line with what the sector projected, of maintaining the strong growth trajectory, mainly in distributed generation, but also in centralized generation”, said the president of ABSOLAR, Rodrigo Sauaia.
According to the research, only in the segment that includes residential consumers, growth was 21.5%.
ABSOLAR emphasizes that the result does not yet reflect the impact of the coronavirus on the sector.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the entity is redoing the calculations on the expected expansion of solar photovoltaic capacity for this year.
Initially, ABSOLAR projected that the source would double capacity over 12 months, to reach 8.5 GW by the end of 2020, which would require investments of almost R$ 20 billion.
According to Rodrigo Sauaia, the expectation is that, after the moment of crisis, there will be a pent-up demand to be met. “When the most critical situation is overcome, there will be a significant increase in the volume of orders, not exactly at the same level, as if demand had been postponed, but of a portion”, explained the executive.
Sauaia also assesses that consumer interest in distributed generation will continue even in the midst of the expected recession and may even grow, given the expected increase in electricity bills.
