After winning the lion’s share in a corporate tender in Brazil in a private renewable energy tender earlier this year, solar power developer and panel maker Canadian Solar has said it locked up another 190MW of new capacity in a recent government regulated market auction, accounting of 27% of the total PV contracts awarded.

Together with the 393MW signed on in non-regulated market contracts and 51MW at an earlier regulated market auction, the company’s contracted pipeline in Brazil so far in 2019 is now over 600MW, a significant amount in the country’s fledgling PV market which is now at just under 2.3GW of installed capacity.

With around 1GW under construction, Brazil’s PV market is growing fast, attracting investors which started their activities in the more mature wind power market including France’s Voltalia and Brazil’s Casa dos Ventos and even oil majors such as Total and BP.

By 2027, Brazil’s solar capacity is expected to top 9GW.

"We are proud to be the only company that has been successful in winning projects in all seven federal energy auctions [which included PV] held to date in Brazil," said Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu.

Since the government firsts started contracting solar power in regulated market tenders in 2014, Canadian has accumulated 1.6GW in contracted projects in the country said Qu. This makes the company a leading solar developer in the country, but it is one of only two top-tier panel makers with an industrial facility in the country.

The new contracted solar capacity is made up of four projects in the state of Ceará and one the state of Pernambuco, in Brazil’s sunny north-eastern region. The PV projects are backed by 20-year local-currency regulated market power production agreements in which solar power was contracted for around $22/MWh.

Total investment in the five projects is projected at R$680m ($168m).