Brazilian federal lawmaker working to unlock small hydro projects
Brazil’s federal lawmaker Lafayette de Andrada (pictured), of the government-allied Republicanos party in Minas Gerais state, is working to unlock and stimulate the deployment of small hydroelectric projects in Brazil, the congressman told BNamericas.
Andrada intends to include instruments to foster such undertakings in federal bill 414/2021, known as the electric power modernization project, which is currently under analysis in the lower house of the national congress.
“I believe that the bill can be voted on in the full house this semester,” he said.
Local small hydroelectric plant association Abrapch estimates that, in the long term, Brazil has the potential to build 213 new hydroelectric generation units (CGHs, with up to 1MW of installed capacity), totalling 846MW, and 1,048 small hydros (up to 30MW) totalling 13,750MW.
This market is poised to grow 30% in the next three years compared with the current generation park, swelling to 8,132MW from 6,256MW, which will require 15bn reais (US$2.9bn) in investments and potentially meet the consumption needs of more than 4.5mn households.
“We also need to value energy sources that are dispatchable, that generate on an as-needed basis, as opposed to intermittent sources [such as wind and solar],” said Andrada, who is a member of the federal lower house’s committee on renewable energy.
He claims that a minimum percentage of energy from small hydros must be mandatorily contracted at regulated auctions held by watchdog Aneel, which, despite being established by the federal legislation already, “has not been respected,” Andrada said.
The lawmaker also pointed out that better tax equality for renewable energy sources must be provided.
“Solar and wind sources have many incentives in terms of imports and tax breaks, and we don’t see this in the case of small hydroelectric plants,” he pointed out.
The privatization of Eletrobras could provide an important boost for the sector, where the law outlines obligatory contracting of 2,000MW of small hydroelectric projects by 2026.
In a statement, the president of Abrapach, Paulo Arbex, said that small hydros were forgotten in the last power auctions held, with expensive and polluting fossil thermal plants contracted instead.
In his view, Brazil runs the risk of dispensing with renewable and better-priced energy to consume coal, “due to poorly planned strategies of opting for thermoelectric plants.”
Fonte: BNamericas
17.02.2022
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