Brazil solar module imports fall 48% and price rises 12.9%

Brazil imported 5.48 GWp of photovoltaic modules in the first half of 2026, a 48% drop from the 10.57 GWp in the same period of 2025, according to a study by consultancy Greener reported by pv magazine on September 19. In absolute terms, the country bought about 5.1 GWp less in module capacity than a year earlier.

The contraction was most severe in centralized generation, utility-scale projects: module imports for that segment fell 82%, from 2.3 GWp to 430 MWp, according to pv magazine Latinoamérica. Distributed generation fell 39%, from 8.2 GW to about 5 GW, although its share of total imports rose from 78% to 92%. The figure matters for the region because the FOB price of modules traded in Brazil sets a reference for buyers across Latin America, including Mexico, in a market where equipment is the largest line item in the capex of a solar project. Greener attributes the collapse in centralized generation to generation curtailment: "In centralized generation, curtailment is now the dominant factor," said Luiza Bertazzoli, head of market intelligence at the firm.

The lower volume did not translate into cheaper equipment. The weighted average FOB price of modules rose 12.9%, from 0.0802 USD/W to 0.0906 USD/W, with a peak of 0.1042 USD/W in May, 29% above the January level. Greener attributes the increase to the end of China's 9% incentive for module exports starting in April. Bertazzoli noted that passing that cost on to end buyers tends to be limited by excess production capacity in China, and added that polysilicon prices began to rise slightly in August after China's policy to curb overproduction. The volume nationalized in the semester supported close to 14,600 million reais, about 2,850 million dollars, in solar investment, compared with about 30,400 million reais in imported equipment in the first half of 2025.

Greener expects manufacturers to pass on only part of the increase in the second half. The next data point to watch is Aneel Public Consultation 033/2026, from Brazil's electricity regulator, which proposes that distribution companies be able to monitor and control up to 33 GW of distributed energy resources.

This note was written with the help of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.