Heavy rains recently triggered floods in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state when Lake Guaíba and the Taquari River and Uruguay River overflowed, reaching more than 5.30 meters and affecting more than 1.95 million people. The death toll stands at 143, with 125 still missing. The authorities still have yet to assess the losses from submerged or affected PV plants. From pv magazine Brazil Brazil's MetSul meteorology institute issued warnings on April 21 about “successive episodes of rain in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, with high volumes in some areas.” On April 27, Canoas, Novo Hamburgo, and Po ..read more

Linde says its White Martins unit will build a second electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen in Brazil, while Sunfire has launched a front-end engineering and design study (FEED) for a new 500 MW hydrogen project. Linde’s White Martins subsidiary has revealed plans to build, own, and operate a second electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen for the southeastern region of Brazil. The German industrial gas company said it will set up a 5 MW pressurized alkaline electrolyzer plant next to its current air separation facility in Jacareí, São Paulo. The new plant will be powered by renewable ener ..read more

Brazil's cumulative installed PV capacity exceeded 41 GW at the end of March, with utility-scale plants accounting for 13 GW and distributed-generation resources representing 28 GW of the total. From pv magazine Brazil Brazil added more than 4 GW of PV capacity to its electricity system in the first quarter of this year, according to new figures from PV association ABSolar. Around 2 GW of this capacity comes from large-scale PV plants and another 2 GW from distributed-generation PV systems, which in Brazil include all installations up to 5 MW. The country hit 41 GW of cumulative installed PV c ..read more

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says developers installed 345.5 GW of solar throughout the world in 2023. China mainly drove the surge, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all new renewable energy, but IRENA says more equitable growth will be needed to hit 2030 deployment targets. An additional 345.5 GW of solar was deployed throughout the world in 2023, according to official figures from IRENA, published in its Renewable Energy Capacity Statistics 2024 report. These numbers differ substantially from figures released in February by BloombergNEF, which said global newly in ..read more

A heat wave drove Brazil's power demand up to a record high of 102 GW last week. However, it also affected solar power generation and pushed PV module operating temperatures to up to 60 C. From pv magazine Brazil A heat wave that passed through Brazil earlier this month pushed energy consumption in the country to record levels. It also raised questions about the impacts of high temperatures on a system with a growing share of solar energy. At some points, considering the heating effect of photovoltaic systems, the loss of efficiency may have reached 15% in this last heat wave, estimates the st ..read more

DNV has started working on blending feasibility studies in the Canadian province of British Columbia, while the US Department of Energy has announced $750 million in funding for 52 hydrogen projects across 24 states. DNV is executing hydrogen blending feasibility studies for Enbridge and FortisBC. The two studies will determine the percentage of hydrogen that can be safely transported through existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure, including Enbridge's transmission system and FortisBC's distribution system, in British Columbia, Canada. According to DNV, the studies are the “largest” blen ..read more

Solar accounted for 17.4% of Brazil's electricity mix last week. PV systems up to 75 kW in size represent around 50% of the total capacity. From pv magazine Brazil Brazil has surpassed 40 GW of operational installed PV capacity, according to new figures from the ABSolar association. The trade body said that around 27.5 GW of the installed capacity comes from distributed-generation PV systems, which include all installations up to 5 MW in size in Brazil. Small microgeneration plants, up to 75 kW in size, represent 22.7 GW of the total, distributed across 2.4 million systems. The country has aro ..read more

In a new monthly column for pv magazine, the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) reports that Brazil currently has more than 85% renewable electricity, mainly hydropower, but with rapidly growing shares of solar and wind power. With 2.3 million rooftop PV systems installed so far and more than 90 million consumer units still available to go solar, favourable energy policies and cheap PV are encouraging the fast uptake of solar in the country. In 2023, PV uptake in Brazil grew at a rate of more than 1 GW per month (70% of that rooftop PV), and the cumulative installed PV capacity reached ..read more

PV module imports fell by 1% year on year in Brazil in 2023, according to a new report from solar consultancy Greener. From pv magazine Brazil Brazil imported 17.5 GW of PV modules in 2023, down by 1.7% from the record of 17.8 GW in 2022, according to a new report by Brazilian consultancy Greener. It said that imports of solar panels surged by 70% in 2022 compared to 2021, with shipments totaling 10.4 GW. Module imports accelerated in the second half of 2023, with 9.3 GW imported, after importers said they had high inventories throughout the first half, when 8.2 GW were imported. The continu ..read more

Brazil has pushed past 38 GW of total installed PV capacity, with around 26.3 GW consisting of distributed-generation solar systems. From pv magazine Brazil Brazil's total installed solar capacity has surpassed 38 GW, including large plants and self-generation systems on rooftops, facades, and small plots of land, representing 16.8% of the country's electricity mix, according to the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar). The association said that since 2012, the solar sector has brought Brazil more than BRL 184.3 billion ($36.7 billion) in new investments, with BRL 60 bill ..read more