Brazil Set To Prohibit Taxation On Solar Energy

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he would move to bar taxation on solar energy in Brazil, as the Latin America country continues to grow the share of renewables in its already substantial share of non-fossil fuels in the electricity production mix.

The presidents of the lower and upper houses of Parliament will open urgently a vote that would seek to prohibit taxation on solar energy, Bolsonaro tweeted on Monday, a week after Brazil’s electricity regulator ANEEL said that it was considering cutting incentives for solar power generation.

In recent years, growth in solar and hydropower has offset declines in Brazil’s oil, natural gas, and coal consumption, according to the BP Statistical Review – 2019. In 2018, Brazil saw strong growth in hydropower and renewables other than hydropower, lifting the share of non-fossil fuels in the energy mix from 37 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2018.

According to BP’s projections, Brazil’s energy mix will continue to shift toward non-fossil fuels as hydropower, renewable energy, and nuclear power are expected to account for nearly 50 percent of the energy mix by 2040, up from 43 percent in 2017.

The share of renewable energy alone in Brazil’s power generation is set to double to one third in 2040, BP’s latest energy outlook on Brazil says.

Apart from being a large crude oil producer—which has just topped the 3 million bpd production mark for the first time ever—Brazil is a major producer of biofuels, and the second-largest ethanol producer in the world after the United States.  

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), large hydropower plants account for around 80 percent of Brazil’s electricity generation, which provides operational flexibility to the domestic electricity system.

“Access to electricity across the country is almost universal and renewables meet almost 45% of primary energy demand, making Brazil’s energy sector one of the least carbon-intensive in the world,” according to the IEA.   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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