Innovative Business Models for Distributed PV in Brazil

Sammanfattning: Most of the increase in world electricity demand until 2030 is expected to come from developing countries (IRENA, 2016) and transition to carbon free energy production technologies offers the opportunity to reduce the negative effects of this increase. With majority of the low and middle income countries located in the areas of favourable solar radiation, PV technology is likely to become a key source of energy in these countries. Brazil is one of the middle income countries with very high solar potential and has much to benefit from the rapid deployment of PV. However, the development is impeded by various economic, institutional and social barriers.Innovative business models can be helpful in overcoming these barriers and accelerate the market adoption of PV. By looking at the case of Brazil, this study investigates how innovative business models for distributed solar PV can help to overcome the deployment barriers. Business models of Third Party Ownership, Community Solar, Crowd-funding and Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading are analysed through the business model canvas framework of Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010). The results show that all four models can have unique contributions to help increase the deployment of distributed PV in Brazil by effectively addressing the fundamental barrier of financing, by offering complementary value propositions, by increasing the potential user base and by increasing awareness among general public, through peer effect or community bonds. With its findings the study contributes to the limited research on PV business models in urban context in middle income countries. Policy recommendations include regulatory adjustments to prepare for a future energy system with distributed generation and disruptive business models with advanced digital technology like crowd-funding and P2P, opening ways for the electricity distribution companies to align their interest with solar businesses and cooperate, and providing low cost credit lines aimed at smaller solar companies.