CPFL Renováveis

The first site we visited on Tuesday was CPFL Renovaveis. CPFL is a relatively new company that has opened up in the Brazilian market. Although is Brazil's largest renewable energy company. In 2012, CPFL received investments for their solar energy project, which now has the largest plant of its kind in Brazil, located in Campinas with a capacity of 1.1 MWp. CPFL carries out its projects in 8 different states, strongly contributing to the local and regional economic and social development. CPFL's mission is to generate energy form renewable resources, in harmony with the environment and society, promoting the development and maturation of the clean energy market. Their focus is on generating electric power from alternative energy sources. CPFL has a variety of different plants, ranging from small scale which I learned is up to 30MW to medium scale which is up to 200 MW. During the CPFL presentation, I learned that they use different technologies including PCHs, wind power plants and bio-mass fired power plants. CPFL has received financial compensation from numerous investors who are pushing for new alternative energy projects in Brazil. Because the company is still in its testing phase, the actual plant was not that large. During our visit we were able to see the various types of solar panels that CPFL is currently testing. 

Due to the fact that CPFL is a new company, I believe that their solar energy technology is not up to par with the potential that Brazil is capable of. CPFL seems to have strong drives and motifs for pushing this new type of alternative energy into the Brazilian market, however they are going to need more resources which means more investors. On the positive side, it was surprising to see how CPFL has many assets in operation, under construction and under development from its different renewable sources. CPFL has pushed and set goals for sustainable growth, including to have an expansion of installed capacity in operation to 1735 by 2016. CPFL seems to be well organized, as they have outlined their strategies for growth during our visit. CPFL plans to expand in sustainable growth, synergies, capital, innovation and corporate governance. The price of alternative energy technologies worldwide is relatively expensive, and therefore the technologies currently in place for the Brazilian market are not purchased for home use. This is a roadblock that CPFL will have to find a solution for over the coming years, in order to make their solar technologies more effective. 

From my visit at CPFL I learned that they have two different types of panels, amorphous crystalline silicon and poly crystalline silicon. Along with the two different types of panels, CPFL also has different mounting systems known as the tracking system which is used with the poly crystalline panel. This panel moves into the direction of the sunlight and therefore is very efficient.On the other hand, the stationary panels use the suns slanted light. Alternative energy technologies differ greatly between the U.S. and Brazil. Due to location and population size, the two countries are hard to compare. The U.S. has many companies currently investing in alternative energy technologies and the Obama Administration in 2009 passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which included more than 70$ billion in direct spending and tax credits for clean energy and associated transportation programs. The US also provides tax incentives, grants and loans to promote the growth of renewables.  Brazil on the other hand has prime location and weather to produce such technologies. Personally, I feel that Americans are more likely to agree to an increase in their taxes to support alternative energy technology. On the other hand, the US relies on foreign resources for alternative energy technologies. This is also seen in Brazil, where we learned that most of their panels are constructed in China. Whether it be in the U.S. or Brazil, the people want the incentives to out way the costs, and this is what alternative energy companies must focus on.