EN 
PT_BR 
This Friday (1st), solar distributed generation (DG) reached the mark of 7 GW of operational power in Brazil. This is what a survey carried out by the Solar Channel, based on data from ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency).
The numbers only reinforce the exponential growth that the source has been registering in the country. In nine months, the segment jumped from 4.78 GW, on January 1st, to the current 7 GW of installed power, which represents a growth of more than 45% between the two periods.
The leading state in generation continues to be Minas Gerais, with around 1.3 GW solar, followed by São Paulo (884 MW), Rio Grande do Sul (845 MW), Mato Grosso (534 MW) and Paraná (382 MW) in the top five positions.
Among the consumption classes, residential has the highest installed power, with 2.91 GW, followed by commercial (2.48 GW), rural (952 MW) and industrial (553 MW). The systems used in government buildings and for lighting streets and avenues together correspond to just over 90 MW.
ANEEL data also shows that the solar sector also accounts for more than 613.2 thousand DG units introduced into the compensation system, which represents an increase of more than 85% compared to the figures for the month of September last year (330 thousand units).
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According to Carlos Evangelista, president of ABGD (Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation), the expectation for the coming years is that the solar energy sector will continue to grow exponentially. For him, the trend is for solar photovoltaic generation to exceed 8 GW of installed power by the end of 2021.
“The market is installing around 350 MW per month and this happens for several reasons. The first is because electrical energy is quite expensive and the more expensive it becomes, the longer the return on distributed generation investment. And, the second, is because of the approval of PL 5829 in the Chamber of Deputies, which encouraged investors”, he said.
For André Gellers, Country Manager at solar inverter manufacturer SMA, the numbers should be celebrated, considering that the outlook for the coming years is increasingly encouraging. “When I discovered photovoltaic solar energy in 2002, I was imagining the transformation potential for our Brazil. Today, with 7 GW of DG installed, we are the creators of dreams, promoting education, work, business, income and sustainability”, he said.
