In just a few months, Brazil will host the world’s biggest climate summit. But as the country prepares to welcome thousands of dignitaries to debate plans to tackle global warming, its own wind and solar industries are flailing.
The casualties are piling up. 2W Ecobank SA, a wind energy producer, filed for bankruptcy protection in April. Rio Alto Energias Renovaveis SA, which constructs and operates solar energy projects, went to court to ask for temporary protection against creditors as it tries to restructure debt. Aeris, the biggest producer of blades for wind farms in Brazil, restructured its debt after more than 3,700 job cuts.
Brazilian wind and solar companies are facing challenges that mirror the plight of clean-energy projects around the world: permitting delays, a dearth of transmission lines, supply-chain snags and high borrowing costs. The setbacks are so severe that they’re putting the world’s green-energy goal - to triple renewable power capacity by 2030 - in peril.
Staunch supporter of green energy
In contrast to the U.S., where President Donald Trump’s anti-renewables policies have hammered the industry, Brazil has remained a staunch supporter of green energy. A major hydropower producer, it has the cleanest energy mix of any G-20 country by a wide margin. It also clinched third place globally in new capacity for wind and solar last year.
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