Brazilian energy firm Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia), which operates in the southern state of Paraná, says one of its units, Copel Comercialização S.A., has contracted 121.6 MW of solar and wind power, after holding a second energy auction last week.
The tendered plants will have to begin delivering power to the utility in January 2023. No details were provided about the auction’s winners or the breakdown between solar and wind in the total capacity auctioned.
The company said the energy will be provided by power plants which have also been awarded PPAs in the A-4 and A-6 auctions recently held by Brazil’s central government.
In the A-4 auction held in late June, the Brazilian energy agency EPE selected two projects: the 40 MWac Jaibes solar facility planned for the state of Minas Gerais owned by Chinese-Canadian solar module maker Canadian Solar, which offered a final bid of BRL73.60 ($19.60)/MWh; and the 163 MWac Milagres solar plant for the state of Ceará – was selected by virtue of a bid of BRL64.99 ($17.30)/MWh and is selling only 30% of its output at the tariff agreed in the auction.
In the A-6 auction held in October, Canadian Solar secured 195 MW of the 530 MW allocated in the exercise. The manufacturer will develop and build the 152.4 MW Gameleira project in the state of Ceará and the 38.1 MW Luiz Gonzaga project, 38.1 MWp in the state of Pernambuco. Another winner in the exercise was Quadran, a unit of French oil giant Total, which was awarded the 101 MW Serrote project in the state of Ceará. The other auction’s winners, meanwhile, remain unknown.
In the first auction of its kind held in late September, Copel contracted 127.9 MW of solar and wind power. A few weeks later, Canadian Solar revealed it had been awarded 72 MW of this capacity. The project in Ceará, Canadian Solar said, is an expansion of the 152.4 MW Lavras facility which is part of a 482 MW portfolio of four assets in which Qatari-owned Nebras acquired an 80% share in April.
Copel owns and operates 19 hydropower plants, a thermal facility and a wind turbine with a combined generation capacity of around 4.7 GW.
Fellow Brazilian utility Cemig, which operates mostly in the state of Minas Gerais, last week concluded its third solar and wind auctionand contracted electricity from 196.98 MW of project capacity. During its first renewable energy procurement, held in June 2018, Cemig contracted power from 431 MW of renewable project capacity. In the second, in early October, the utility procured power from a further 152 MW of capacity.
