Analysis on How Policies Aimed to Facilitate Distributed Generation in Brazil Contributed to a Sustainable Grid

Brazil’s electrical grid has been considered sustainable for decades now, with most of the energy generated resulting from hydroelectric powerplants. However, with the ascension of photovoltaic (PV) energy, a new "green" alternative has gained its share of the country’s energy matrix, prompting new regulation and incentives (e.g. Ordinance 14.300). In the national context, PV generation is categorized as centralized generation (CG), those being powerplants of 3 MW or higher, and distributed generation (DG), ranging from small powerplants, to residential and commercial systems, which constitute most of DG. Since 2009, the developments in GD have achieved exponential growth, and by the end of 2024, the installed capacity of GD surpassed 35 GW, more than double the capacity of CG. This paper aims to analyze the data provided by national agencies and unravel public policies that helped GD become an imported aspect of Brazil’s sustainable grid expansion.