| Summary: | Brazil has one of the world's cleanest energy portfolios, with 85.3 percent of overall energy production coming from renewable sources (compared with the worldwide average of 16 percent), and with 75 percent of the country's 105,000 megawatt (MW) installed generation capacity coming from hydropower plants alone. The country has improved its procedures for building new energy facilities and connecting them to the grid. The distribution companies in the zone where transmission services were needed lacked the personnel to plan network expansion. In addition, in certain cases, the network needs of the renewable energy providers requesting transmission services dwarfed in size and capital cost the entire existing distribution network in the area. To address the challenges of planning and paying for the transmission infrastructure needed to bring energy from renewable sources to the grid, Brazil devised a competitive process to develop shared transmission networks for renewable energy. The procurement process provides transparency that helps reveal the cost of efficiently delivering infrastructure, supports a realistic and sustainable pricing structure, and creates an environment for both generation and transmission that is attractive to the private sector.
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