State updates standards and eliminates environmental licensing for solar DG

The State of Rio Grande do Sul published last Wednesday (15) a document that changes resolution no. 372/2018 of CONSEMA (State Environmental Council). The measure published in the Official Gazette eliminates the need for licensing for the generation of electrical energy from solar sources, with installed power less than or equal to 5 MW, as long as it does not exceed or configure forms of groupings that occupy areas greater than 15 hectares.

The exception is for projects connected at voltages above 38 kV, which must have their own licensing, in accordance with current legislation. The other system ranges, above this size, remain in the same previous classification. According to the document, the lack of need for environmental licensing for projects does not eliminate the need for other urban authorizations for construction, expansion or operation, such as the Solid Waste Management Plan.

Paraná

Another state that updated its environmental licensing process was Paraná, which announced, this Monday (19), the Paraná Energia Sustentável program, aiming to speed up the environmental licensing issuance processes for small-scale enterprises for the generation of clean energy.

The intention is to encourage the implementation of own generation mechanisms through photovoltaic panels and other renewable sources, such as wind, biogas and small hydroelectric plants (PCHs). To this end, specific resolutions were created for each of the generation modalities, in addition to an online system that will unify and speed up the licensing process.

With the resolutions, each project is treated according to its specificity, which offers, in addition to greater security on the part of the environmental agency, more agility in the analysis of processes. Previously, there were no specific regulations for each type of energy source.