Brazil enters top 15 of solar energy producers

Welcome to “Number of the Week,” where we choose a single figure that helps understand what is going on in Brazil. This week, we show that even though the country is in the midst of an energy crisis, solar energy has hit a historic mark in installed capacity.

10gigawatts

solar power output in Brazil

ONS, the operator of Brazil’s national power grid, warned the government of the “degrading” levels of the country’s hydroelectric reservoirs, highlighting the need to increase production by 7 percent to minimize risks of outages in the next two months. For that reason, the operator argued that the country should rely even more on thermoelectric plants, a more expensive and polluting option. 

In this context, the need to expand the use of renewable energy sources – which could help...