ET solar forms EPC partnership in Brazil

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ET Solar Chile, the Latin American subsidiary of PV developer ET Solar, has formed a consortium with Brazil-based electronics manufacturer WEG to offer turnkey for the Brazilian market.

The consortium also plans to offer O&M services. It has already begun working with customers and expects to begin construction activities in the first quarter of 2016.

Manfred Peter Johann, managing director of WEG Automation, said: “ET Solar's global EPC experience delivering turnkey projects coupled with WEG's high-quality components will allow our consortium to offer products and services packages to investors that will conform with the financial pre-requisites established by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) at a moment when the Brazilian market is very receptive to PV solutions implementation."

Jaime Portaluppi, ET Solar's managing director for Latin America, said: "The consortium grants access to the Brazilian market with compliance with BNDES content requirements. Our partnership comes at a time when Brazil is giving signals of embracing PV as a viable and cost effective alternative to their energy matrix."

Last week, JinkoSolar had frozen plans to build a 200-300MW module assembly line in Brazil, due to uncertainties in the Brazilian marketplace and currency risks. While this uncertainty related to manufacturing, PV project development is also affected as BNDES is only offering financing to PV players that follow a progressive nationalisation plan for equipment manufacturing.

Nevertheless, in September, Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) introduced a new solar PV target of 7GW of installed capacity by 2024, almost doubling its previous target.

Brazil's latest solar auction resulted in the award of 833MW of solar power projects out of a total 11.3GW of short-listed projects, showing that Brazil has become a highly competitive market.