Developing Brazil’s Market for Distributed Solar Generation

The policy brief analyzes the decentralized solar market in Brazil, finding that consumer uptake is driven primarily by demand-side factors rather than natural resource availability. Analysis of 5,563 municipalities reveals that areas with higher GDP, larger populations, and higher electricity tariffs have more photovoltaic units, while regions with the highest solar potential, such as the Center and Northeast, have lower adoption rates. The authors recommend that climate risk mitigation policies address these demand-side barriers to encourage solar penetration in the poorest regions with the highest solar potential.

• Demand-side factors are more influential than solar radiation in determining the adoption of distributed solar energy in Brazil. Municipalities with lower annual solar radiation actually have, on average, more consumer units of distributed solar photovoltaic generation than those with higher radiation levels.
• The adoption of photovoltaic units in Brazil is positively correlated with higher municipal Gross Domestic Product (GDP), larger population sizes, and higher electricity tariffs.
• As of 2017, the distributed solar market in Brazil was concentrated in a small number of municipalities, with only 1,478 out of 5,563 studied municipalities having at least one photovoltaic solar unit. The highest concentration in a single municipality was found in Rio de Janeiro with 436 units in June 2017.
• Distributed solar generation represents nearly 70% of Brazil's decentralized power supply and 99% of its installed consumer units, contrasting with centralized solar energy, which accounts for only 0.1% of the nation's centralized electricity matrix.

APA

Assunção, J., & Schutze, A. (2017). Developing Brazil’s Market for Distributed Solar Generation. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CPI_PolicyBrief_Developing_Brazil’s_Market_for_Distributed_Solar_Generation.pdf

Chicago

Assunção, Juliano, and Amanda Schutze. Developing Brazil’s Market for Distributed Solar Generation. Climate Policy Initiative, 2017. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CPI_PolicyBrief_Developing_Brazil’s_Market_for_Distributed_Solar_Generation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assunção |first1=Juliano |last2=Schutze |first2=Amanda |title=Developing Brazil’s Market for Distributed Solar Generation |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=September 2017 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CPI_PolicyBrief_Developing_Brazil’s_Market_for_Distributed_Solar_Generation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2017developing, author = {Assunção, Juliano and Schutze, Amanda}, title = {{Developing Brazil’s Market for Distributed Solar Generation}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2017}, month = sep, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CPI_PolicyBrief_Developing_Brazil’s_Market_for_Distributed_Solar_Generation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }