Brazil has just reached the historic milestone of 5,000 municipalities with photovoltaic solar energy installed on roofs and small plots of homes, businesses, industries, rural producers and public buildings, according to today's data (17/09) from the Brazilian Solar Energy Association Photovoltaic (ABSOLAR).

According to the entity's mapping, the country currently has 3.5 gigawatts installed and 294 thousand photovoltaic systems connected to the network, which represent more than R $ 17 billion in accumulated investments since 2012. The jobs generated by the sector in the 5,000 municipalities, representing 89.8% of the total in Brazil, surpass 120 thousand workers who work with distributed generation projects.

The photovoltaic solar source, based on the direct conversion of solar radiation into electric energy in a renewable, clean and sustainable way, easily leads the segment of distributed generation, with more than 99.9% of the country's installations. Photovoltaic connections bring savings and environmental sustainability to around 367 thousand consumer units.

“ABSOLAR celebrates the expansion of access to solar energy in Brazilian municipalities, but, however, the country is still only at the beginning of this process of energy transition to a cleaner and more sustainable matrix, since the distributed photovoltaic technology represents only 0, 4% of consumer units in the country, currently around 84.4 million ”, comments Ronaldo Koloszuk, chairman of ABSOLAR's Board of Directors.

For Rodrigo Sauaia, CEO of ABSOLAR, photovoltaic solar energy, especially in distributed generation, is a strong engine for generating employment and income and attracting private investments to the country. “To have an idea, only in the first half of this year, the sector generated more than 47 thousand new jobs, even with the health and economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic ”, he points out. “As it is a very dynamic market, with a strong attraction of investments, solar energy is a lever for Brazil's sustainable economic development”, concludes Sauaia.