São Paulo – After receiving clearance from the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), Petrobras announced this Wednesday (4th) that it will build a solar energy plant in the municipality of Alto do Rodrigues, approximately 200 kilometres away from Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte state. The plant will be located in the same plot as the Jesus Soares Pereira Thermoelectric Plant, owned by Petrobras. The project is experimental and will generate 1,100 megawatts starting in the second half of 2014.
In a statement issued this Wednesday, Petrobras claims that the project is geared towards research and development. “Project development will start this year and will contribute to improve publicly available data on solar (photovoltaic) energy generation, for the expansion of the pool of testing laboratories and equipment certification, and the training of technician- and graduate-level professionals in this field,” according to the statement.
In order to develop this project, Petrobras will build a scale-model plant with capacity to generate 10 Mw of power at the Power Electronics and Renewable Energies Laboratory of the Electrical Engineering Department at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). This small plant will operate as an “experimental platform.” The prospecting of solar energy will be carried out by the Centre for Renewable Technologies at Gás & Energias Renováveis (CTGAS-ER) developed in partnership with the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (Senai).
According to the statement, the CTGAS-ER will have a lab capable of homologating equipment designed for photovoltaic power generation, as well as a training centre for personnel in charge of setting up and maintenance of the photovoltaic systems. The entire project will take up 20.9 million reals (US$ 11.4 million) worth of investment.
Brazil has strong potential in solar power generation. Germany is one of the cutting-edge countries when it comes to harnessing energy from the sun. According to Greenpeace, the European country gets 850 to 1,000 hours of sunlight per year, and produces 82 TWh of energy annually, enough to meet the demand of the United Arab Emirates. The sunniest regions of Germany get 1,150 hours of sunlight a year at most, 40% less than the least sunny regions in Brazil, which receive from 1,642 hours to 1,715 hours of sunlight each year. Less than 1% of the power supplied in Brazil originates from the sun.
According to the Aneel, Petrobras and 17 other enterprises presented the project during a technical call to action issued by the agency in August 2011. The combined value of projects by the 18 companies which submitted proposals amounts to 395.9 million reals (US$ 216 million). After screening the proposals, the agency authorized 15 companies, among them Petrobras, to develop their solar energy projects. According to Aneel, Petrobras will need to make some adjustments which were advised on by the agency’s technicians, before it can operate the new plant.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
