Élbia Melo – Recharge News, 8/1/2014
Proinfa’s objective was to make possible the contracting of “non-conventional” renewable energy — biomass, small hydro and wind — even when these sources had production costs much higher than conventional hydropower, in order to send an investment signal.
At today’s prices, wind was contracted for about R$370 ($165) per MWh in that period, while biomass and small hydro were contracted at prices above R$200/MWh, in contrast to conventional hydro prices of around R$100/MWh. This was similar to the feed-in tariff regimes used by Europe and most of the developed countries that implemented strong renewables policies from the mid-1990s.
Wind and solar have stood out strongly in the past ten years in the evolution of their technology and production costs. These factors have allowed an exponential increase in investment and brought strong competition in equipment prices.