EDP will develop its first large-scale solar plant
The project, carried out in partnership with EDP Renováveis in Rio Grande do Norte, will triple the installed capacity of the Company's current solar energy park
EDP, a company that operates in all segments of the electricity sector, will invest in the development of its first large-scale photovoltaic plant in partnership with EDP Renováveis. The project, called Monte Verde Solar, will have an installed capacity of 209 MWac and will be located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in the cities of Pedro Avelino, Lajes and Jandaíra.
Both companies, controlled by the EDP group, will have equal participation in the business. The project is already granted and guaranteed to be connected to the transmission system and has a 15-year PPA (power purchase agreement) with EDP Comercializadora, which in turn has allocated this energy to contracts with the same duration. The plant is expected to start operating in 2024.
“With the investment in this project, we have advanced our goal, announced in the Strategic Plan 2021-2025, of increasing the size of our solar park in Brazil by more than 25 times compared to 2020. It is an important step in our proposal to replace hydroelectric generation with solar, mitigating the effect of hydrological risk on our portfolio”, says João Marques da Cruz, CEO of EDP Brasil. “This is an project that creates value for the Company and its shareholders while reinforcing our purpose of leading the energy transition, acting today to build a more sustainable tomorrow”, he adds.
Investment in solar energy
Solar generation is among the strategic axes for EDP's growth in Brazil until 2025, when the Company intends to reach the 1 GWp mark in installed capacity in this modality. With the announcement of the Monte Verde Solar project, EDP's portfolio in this segment reaches around 310 MWp.
According to Absolar, in 2021, Brazil surpassed the mark of 10.8 gigawatts (GW) of installed power in the photovoltaic solar source, with 3.8 GW in centralized generation and just over 7 GW in distributed generation. Since 2012, more than R$ 56.4 billion has been invested in the segment, which generated 325 thousand jobs and collected R$ 15.1 billion in taxes. Since then, the use of solar energy has avoided the emission of more than 12.4 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
About EDP in Brazil
Present in the country for over 20 years, EDP is one of the largest private companies in the electricity sector operating throughout the value chain. With more than 10,000 direct and outsourced employees, the Company has businesses in Generation, Transmission, and Energy Services Solutions aimed at the B2B market, such as solar generation, electric mobility and the free energy market. In Distribution, it serves about 3.5 million customers in São Paulo and Espírito Santo, in addition to being the main shareholder of Celesc, in Santa Catarina. In 2020, it was elected the most innovative company in the electricity sector by the Valor Inovação ranking, of the Valor Econômico newspaper, and is a reference in ESG, being on the B3 Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) for 15 consecutive years.