RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Engie is looking at installing storage systems or bitcoin mining data centers at its new solar plant in Brazil to make the facility more profitable, the local head of the French utility company said.
Having those systems would reduce curtailments that are hurting the economics of Assu Sol, the company's largest solar project worldwide, said Eduardo Sattamini, Engie country manager for Brazil.
"We are looking at some possible offtakers," he told journalists on a call last week.
Located in northeast Brazil, Assu has 895 MWp of installed capacity and started full commercial operations this month. However, production has been curbed by curtailments applied to balance Brazil's power grid, Sattamini said, without detailing how much of production has been affected.
Curtailment - whereby electricity generation from renewable sources has to be reduced because the grid cannot absorb it all - has become a major issue for solar and wind farms in Brazil since 2023, causing billions of reais in losses to energy firms.
The increase of "wasted" energy follows a surge in new renewable plants, combined with weak demand growth, infrastructure constraints and a rapid expansion of distributed generation, particularly rooftop solar. Options are being considered to create local demand and manage the issue in Assu Sol, such as data centers for bitcoin mining or storage, said Sattamini, adding this would not be a short-term solution. "That's not coming next month. It will take a couple of years for us to implement," he said.
(Reporting by Leticia Fucuchima in Sao Paulo and Fabio Teixeira in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Susan Fenton)
