A new venture formed in Brazil, Sistema de Energia Renovavel (SER), has plans to build a total of 600 MW of new solar power capacity by 2020. This would represent quite a big development, since the country's current solar capacity is virtually non-existent due to high prices of equipment. SER exepcts the new capacity to be competitively priced against other electricity sources within the next six years.

The government is increasing its support for renewable energy, which should result in reduced manuacturing costs, bringing down the price of electrical energy generated from sources such as solar energy. SER is already on its way to complete its first 5 MW installation next year, a 50/50 joint venture project with Manserv Montagem e Manutencao, a Brazilian construction company. Since the solar equipment needed for the installation has to be imported, the investment into this solar park is higher than it would be for a similar installation in Europe, for example. Brazil has still to put forth a feed-in-tariff package that would stimulate the development of clean energy technologies such as solar. The country is already heavily involved in the development of wind capacity, its biggest renewable energy resource, aside from hydropower.

It is rumored the supplier for SER's announced solar projects could by First Solar, which is in a partnership with Assyce Fotovoltaica Sociedad, a Spanish company, which is also owns one half of SER.

[source: Bloomberg]