Is Brazil the Eldorado of renewable energy?

Brazil, an exceptional renewable power 

Atypically, Brazil has long made the development of renewable energies (RE) a priority. While renewable energies account for 30% of the energy mix on average in the G20 countries, Brazil is the exception, with 88% of its energy coming from renewable sources in 2024. 55.3% comes from hydropower (down) and 23.7% from solar and wind power combined (up⁾². The Brazilian energy market represented 251 GW in 2025 and its annual growth rate is 8.05%³.

Advantageous natural resources

The country's hydraulic resources, strong solar energy potential, particularly in the Northeast Region, and favourable wind conditions on the Atlantic coast have encouraged the construction of remarkable infrastructure.

Hydropower is historically very important in Brazil and represented 413 TWh in 2024⁴, or 9.1% of global production. Brazil has some of the most powerful dams in the world, such as Itaipu (annual production: 98.3 TWh/year), Belo Monte (40.04 TWh/year) and Tucurui (41.43 TWh/year⁾⁵.

The second source of renewable energy, and fast-growing, is photovoltaic power. Given that the country is located in one of the areas of the globe with some of the highest levels of solar irradiation in the world⁶, this is hardly surprising. Over the last ten years, the number of installations has risen sharply every year, with growth rates ranging from 40% to 316%, reaching production of 70664 GWh in 2024, or 9.4% of the country's electricity production.

Brazil also has an advantage when it comes to wind power, with the north-east coast offering ideal conditions with regular, powerful winds. Growing relatively steadily each year since 2008 (between 1.9 and 86%), it reached 107,654 GWh in 2024, or 14.3% of national electricity production⁷.

Reducing energy dependency: Brazil's strategic choice

In the 1970s, the oil crises led to a sharp rise in the cost of oil. All over the world, the question of energy sovereignty - that is, a country's ability to meet its energy needs as independently as possible - was raised.

Brazil decided very early on to reduce its dependence on imported oil. As a result, the bioethanol industry was born, with the Proàlcool programme launched in 1973. 

The oil counter-shock in 1986, with the discovery of new oil fields, weakened this industry, but the programme was reformed in the 1990s: blended with petrol, ethanol was no longer used in its pure form, but could continue its growth. The government even set a new requirement for the incorporation of ethanol into petrol, of the order of 22% to 24%. Tax incentives encouraged the development of ethanol in the country, while helping to stabilise alcohol and sugar prices through a mechanism to support the storage of alcohol in factories⁸.   

For the same reasons of seeking energy sovereignty, hydroelectricity developed massively in the 1970s-1990s, followed more recently by solar and wind power. It is estimated that 78 billion dollars have been invested between 2015 and today^9.

The current political will is to ‘make Brazil a 'leader' in the fight against the climate crisis’¹⁰, in the words of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who chaired COP30 in November 2025 in Belém.

Between 2020 and 2025, Omexom (VINCI Energies) was involved in 14 renewable energy projects (solar and wind power), connecting them to the national grid, and constructed (under EPC contracts) over 450 km of transmission lines and six 230 kV and 500 kV substations.

Challenges and solutions  

Dilapidated and congested infrastructure in need of upgrading 

Despite all these advantages, the energy challenges remain considerable. The first example is the need to upgrade a large number of dilapidated infrastructure. 

Indeed, the increase in solar and wind power generation means that high-voltage power transmission. lines need to be upgraded. In Brazil, the network is inadequate and congested¹³. And with good reason. The share of solar and wind power in the country's energy mix has jumped from 4% in 2015 to 40% in 2024, going from 8 GW to 99 GW.

What's more, the intermittent nature of these energies means that there are peaks and troughs in production. The network's inability to manage certain production peaks has led to the temporary suspension of renewable energy production, which represented a major financial loss for many energy producers. According to Volt Robotics' annual report, Brazil is said to have been forced to reduce its wind and solar production capacity by 20% in 2025, a loss estimated at over 1.23 billion dollars¹⁴. 

Brazil's Ten-Year Energy Expansion Plan (PDE) 2034 envisages investing 128.6 billion Brazilian reals (around US$24.5 billion) in the construction of 30,000 km of new transmission lines and substations with a total capacity of 82,000 megavolt-amperes (MVA) over the next ten years¹⁵. At the end of March 2025, VINCI subsidiary Cobra Brasil (Cobra IS) was awarded the contract to build 738 km of high-voltage electricity transmission lines connecting three Brazilian states¹⁶. With this latest contract, Cobra Brasil is in charge of building 2,400 km of high-voltage lines across Brazil. In addition, it has also built more than 30,000 km of high-voltage lines for the country under public-private partnerships.

The climate and its hazards: the impact on renewable energy production in Brazil  

Another challenge is the climate, which has also had a negative impact on energy production. The major droughts that hit the country in 2001, 2014 and 2021 affected hydroelectric production. There was therefore a real need to compensate for hydrological variations by increasing electricity production by other means. The development of wind and solar power is one of the solutions that enable this diversification. Today, the country still needs to find a balance between these different sources of energy, and transport them from the areas where they are produced to the areas where they are most needed

Development of renewable energy in Brazil: social and economic challenges to achieve its ambitions

In 2025, Brazil ranked 9^th in the world economy in terms of GDP, ahead of Canada and behind Italy¹⁷. However, its poverty rate remains high (26.8% in 2024), although it is falling. Finding skilled labour for electrical construction and maintenance work is a challenge in this context, all the more so because of a sometimes ailing education system. Indeed, while Brazil's school enrolment rate has risen sharply in recent years, reaching 97.9% in 2024 for primary school, illiteracy has not disappeared: almost three out of ten Brazilians aged between 15 and 64 were functionally illiterate¹⁸. Omexom Transmission Lines Brazil, a VINCI Energies company, is contributing to the sustainable development of technical education in Brazil. The company has introduced training¹⁹ for employees working on the assembly and pre-assembly of pylons on transmission line construction projects. What makes it special is that it is accessible to people with different levels of literacy. Videos, computer graphics and virtual reality help to ensure that rules and procedures are understood by everyone, which is all the more important in a field where risks are real and safety rules must be integrated without fail.

In Brazil, despite a slightly less favourable context in recent years - from production losses due to drought to financial losses due to production peaks for solar and wind power - the country, which has already invested massively in renewable energy, has no intention of stopping there. In addition to the long-term economic benefits, Brazil's international image as a defender of international climate commitments is at stake. The country is continuing to invest to modernise its infrastructure and continue on its path towards increasingly green energy.

Sources :

¹ PV Magazine : « Brazil generates 88% of power from renewables in 2024 » – https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/02/brazil-generates-88-of-power-from-renewables-in-2024/  

Connaissance des énergies magazine : « Quelles sont les sources d’énergie renouvelable et quelle production dans le monde ? » – https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/questions-et-reponses-energies/quels-sont-les-pays-qui-produisent-le-plus-delectricite-dorigine-renouvelable 

² Ember, Energy Research Office – EPE : « Summary Repport 2025 » – https://www.epe.gov.br/sites-en/publicacoes-dados-abertos/publicacoes/PublicacoesArquivos/publicacao-270/BEN_S%C3%ADntese_2025_EN.pdf  

³ Cobra IS : « Les contrats de partenariat public-privé (PPP) accélèrent la transformation des réseaux électriques » 

⁴ Wikipédia : « Hydroélectricité au Brésil » –"https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro%C3%A9lectricit%C3%A9_au_Br%C3%A9sil 

⁵ Wikipedia : « Liste des barrages hydroélectriques les plus puissants » – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_barrages_hydro%C3%A9lectriques_les_plus_puissants 

⁶ Wikipedia : « Énergie solaire au Brésil » – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89nergie_solaire_au_Br%C3%A9sil 

⁷ Ibidem. 

⁸ Parlement européen : « Les biocarburants au Brésil » – https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/nt/692/692070/692070fr.pdf 

⁹ Financial Times : « Can Brazil's grid keep up with its clean energy boom ? » – https://www.ft.com/content/193ad5ae-b1fa-4a1e-becb-56702d519e15  

¹⁰  Franceinfo : « “Lula est dans la contradiction” : Le Brésil, organisateur de la COP30, entre lutte contre la déforestation et dépendance au pétrole » – https://www.franceinfo.fr/environnement/crise-climatique/cop-climat/cop30/lula-est-dans-la-contradiction-le-bresil-organisateur-de-la-cop30-entre-lutte-contre-la-deforestation-et-dependance-au-petrole_7523497.html 

¹¹ COBRA IS : « COBRA IS inaugure les installations photovoltaïques de Belmonte au Brésil » – https://www.iscobra.com/fr/cobra-is-inaugure-les-installations-photovoltaiques-de-belmonte-au-bresil/ 

¹² VINCI : « 2025 Universal Registration document. Report of the board of directors – Report on the financial statements for the year 2025 » (p. 115) – https://www.vinci.com/publi/vinci/vinci-2025-universal-registration-document.pdf  

Cobra IS : « Les contrats de partenariat public-privé (PPP) accélèrent la transformation des réseaux électriques ».  

¹³ Financial Times : « Can Brazil's grid keep up with its clean energy boom ? » – https://www.ft.com/content/193ad5ae-b1fa-4a1e-becb-56702d519e15  

¹⁴ PV Magazine : « Brazil curtails 20% of solar and wind output in 2025, with losses at $1.2 billion » –  

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/02/02/brazil-curtails-20-of-solar-and-wind-output-in-2025-with-losses-at-1-2-billion/ 

¹⁵ Cobra IS : « Les contrats de partenariat public privé (PPP) accélèrent la transformation des réseaux électriques »  

¹⁶ VINCI : « VINCI se voit confier la réalisation de 738 km de lignes de transmission électrique haute tension au Brésil » – https://www.vinci.com/newsroom/communiques-presse/vinci-se-voit-confier-la-realisation-de-738-km-de-lignes-de  

¹⁷ Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, France Diplomatie : « Présentation du Brésil » – https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/bresil/presentation-du-bresil/  

¹⁸  Istoebresil : « Le Brésil, un géant sud-américain endormi » – https://www.istoebresil.org/post/le-br%C3%A9sil-un-g%C3%A9ant-sud-am%C3%A9ricain-endormi-2 

¹⁹ The Agility Effect : « Omexom Brésil fait rimer inclusivité et sécurité » – https://www.theagilityeffect.com/fr/article/omexom-bresil-fait-rimer-inclusivite-et-securite/