São Paulo – Businessman Eike Batista, considered the richest man in Brazil and the eighth worldwide, should inaugurate on Thursday (4), in Tauá, in the interior of Ceará state, the first commercial solar power mill in the country. The plant, which is already in operation, belongs to MPX, the energy company of EBX group, managed by the billionaire. According to the company, it is also the first of the kind in Latin America.
The mill, according to MPX, started being built in September last year and consumed investment of 10 million Brazilian reals (US$ 6.4 million), of which 1.2 million reals (US$ 764,000) in loans by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The mill has one megawatt of installed capacity, enough to supply electricity to 1,500 families.
The mayor of Tauá, Odilon Aguiar, said to ANBA that the installation of the mill and the climate characteristics of the region tend to attract “dividends” to the city. "One of the characteristics of the city is sun practically all year round,” he said. He explained that he has already been sought by Chinese and Spaniards interested in new investment.
The city has a population of 58,000 inhabitants living mainly off sheep and subsistence farming, mainly maize and beans. The generation of energy, in turn, is a completely new activity, according to Aguiar. "We have a water deficit. Rainfall is just 600 millimetres a year,” he explained. “The sun that punished us is now a benefit to the population,” he added.
According to MPX, the city was chosen "due to its excellent indices of sunlight all year round.” The organisation informs that during construction, half of the workers were hired in the city itself. The mayor hopes that investment and introduction of new technologies may result in “new dynamics” for the city in the scientific and economic areas. “It is a bet for the future of the entire region,” he pointed out.
The mill is already connected to the national grid. According to MPX, it covers an area of 12,000 square metres and has 4,680 solar panels made by the Japanese Kyocera.
The company adds that it has been authorised to increase capacity to 5 MW. The project forecasts up to 50 MW. To reach such capacity, according to the organisation, 234,000 panels will be necessary.
Expansion, always according to MPX, will be guided by analysis of the mill’s operation figures, as monitored by the Ceará State University, which has an agreement with the company.
*Translated by Mark Ament
