Brazil’s Copel Mercado Livre, a subsidiary of Companhia Paranaense de Energia, announced that it had awarded 595 MW of renewable energy projects for 13 years to expand its renewable energy portfolio.

Companhia Paranaense de Energia, the parent company, is a power generator along with its transmission, distribution, and telecommunications operations.  According to the company, its generation portfolio consists of 20 power projects (18 hydroelectric, one thermal, and one wind). The total installed capacity of the company is 4,754 MW.

Copel also has 24 wind farms in operation divided into the São Bento Energia, CopelBrisa Potiguar, and  Cutia Wind complexes. In the second quarter of 2020, these 24 wind farms totaling 590.5 MW generated 716.4 GWh of energy, according to the financial results for Q2 2020.

According to the press release, the 595 MW of projects awarded include 411 MW of solar and 184 MW of wind projects. The new projects will supply energy to Copel starting from January 2023 until 2035.

Copel Mercado Livre said that it had announced the tender for these renewable energy projects at the end of 2019. The first stage of the auction was held in February 2020, and this was the second stage. The final stage of the auction is expected to take place at the end of 2020. Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2020 Solar Funding and M&A Report said that Copel recently acquired a 49% stake in a 4 MW solar distributed generation (DG) portfolio. Copel also secured a minority stake in HOLDING DE SPES SA, which will be created to control 100% of all the six solar projects that are included in the portfolio. A local firm Sistechne Participacoes Societarias Ltda will hold the remaining 51% stake.

Meanwhile, according to Mercom India Research, Brazil’s Chamber of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economy issued an official notification in July 2020, listing several imported goods that would not attract any import tax in Brazil. The list includes monocrystalline as well as bifacial modules, three-phase inverters for PV systems, and other vital components used in solar trackers.