Public Policy Recommendations to Encourage the Development of a Distributed Solar Generation Market in Sao Paulo

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with Consórcio Intermunicipal da Região Oeste Metropolitana de São Paulo (CIOESTE), hosted this webinar on specific feedback on the suitable policies and conditions to nurture a competitive market for photovoltaic distributed generation (PV DG), with an emphasis on the commercial and industrial (C&I) market.

Aligned to this goal, the study presented in the webinar assessed the financial and market gaps that could hamper a healthy growth of competitive PV DG installations for the C&I market. Even though grid parity is in place for PV DG in most of Brazil’s distribution concession areas, PV DG projects for the C&I segment in CIOESTE are not being developed at the same pace as those in the rest of Brazil or the rest of Sao Paulo. The reason for this is the lack of proper financial mechanisms to unveil the PV DG market, especially to supply micro, small and medium Enterprises (or MSMEs).

Facilitating PV DG investments at MSMEs is desirable for CIOESTE because of (1) the multiplier effect resulting from replicating a successful case into many companies and (2) productivity improvements that can be obtained for MSMEs, and (3) the benefits for large companies that require addressing greenhouse gas mitigation action across their supply chain.

For the study, four case studies of clean energy programs where analyzed to extract policy lessons for CIOESTE’s approach to promoting PV DG (with an emphasis on the C&I market). Also, a road map was prepared with specific recommendations to frame a business model and install a financial mechanism to foster the replicability of PV DG projects (with a focus on C&I) for the municipalities under CIOESTE.

The webinar presentations were followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.