.SOLAR ENERGY IN BRAZIL: "BETTER LATE THAN NEVER"

Deepening drought forces Brazil to embrace solar power

Jan Rocha

Read complete essay on http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2820022/deepening_drought_forces_brazil_to_embrace_solar_power.html

Without water to feed its hydroelectric dams, drought-hit Brazil is turning to solar power - dubbed 'a fantasy' by the country's president just a few years ago, writes Jan Rocha. Now thousands of megawatts of floating solar panel 'islands' are to be installed on dam reservoirs.

Brazil's devastating drought could have the unexpected consequence of finally prompting one of the sunniest countries in the world to take solar power seriously.

The combination of an imminent energy crisis, as reservoir levels fall too low to generate power, and the appointment of a more open-minded Energy Minister promise a rapid change in the situation.

The drought, which has produced a crisis in the supply of water, has seen a dramatic drop in the levels of the reservoirs that supply dozens of hydroelectric dams in the southeast and centre west - Brazil's industrial powerhouse and major population centre.

As Brazil now begins the seven-month dry period, when rain is traditionally sparse, the reservoirs in the drought-affected region could fall to as little as 10% of their capacity, which the new Mines and Energy Minister, Eduardo Braga, admits would be "catastrophic" for energy security.

Thermal power plants, such as coal-fired stations, also consume huge volumes of water as they generate electricity.

[...]

Vast solar potential - 20 times greater than entire existing capacity!

At the moment, the total solar energy generated in Brazil is a piffling 15MW, much of it from new football stadium roofs installed for the 2014 football World Cup. But its vast solar energy potential, according to some sources, is equivalent to 20 times the total of all the present installed capacity of electrical energy.

[...]