Brazil's solar module imports plunge as curtailment scares off big projects
Brazil's solar module imports fell by nearly half in the first half of 2026, as widespread grid curtailment scares off utility-scale developers even as rooftop demand holds steadier.
According to a piece published Friday by Alessandra Neris on PV Magazine, Brazil imported 5.48 gigawatts of solar modules in the first half of 2026, a 48 percent drop from 10.57 gigawatts in the same period a year earlier, according to a survey by the consultancy Greener.
The decline was driven overwhelmingly by utility-scale projects, where imports fell 82 percent to just 430 megawatts, down from 2.3 gigawatts. Distributed generation, which covers smaller rooftop and commercial systems, fell a comparatively modest 39 percent, to 5 gigawatts from 8.2 gigawatts, and its share of total imports rose from 78 percent to 92 percent. Imports fell in nearly every month of the period, dropping 71.6 percent in March and 60.7 percent in April, with May the lone exception, up 6.5 percent year over year.
Average module prices rose 12.9 percent, from 8.02 cents to 9.06 cents per watt, peaking at 10.42 cents in May after China phased out a 9 percent export incentive starting in April. "In centralized generation, curtailment is the dominant factor today. It reduces projected project revenue and increases the perceived risk of new investment," said Luiza Bertazzoli, Greener's head of market intelligence. Distributed generation faces its own headwinds, including high interest rates, grid-connection refusals affecting 33 percent of applications nationally and 79 percent in the state of Minas Gerais, and a grid-usage charge known as the Fio B tariff that now applies to 60 percent of systems.
Alessandra Neris, PV Magazine: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/09/19/solar-module-imports-drop-48-in-brazil-in-h1/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
