How much is possible? An integrative study of intermittent and renewables sources deployment. A case study in Brazil

This chapter research at the sharp expansion that renewable and intermittent sources have been promoting in electrical systems worldwide. In Brazil, a country with unique characteristics with a high degree of renewability due to the marked presence of water resources, the scenario is no different. Although these sources are marked by desirable attributes such as low operating cost and low impacts, their intermittence causes a series of difficulties that must become obstacles to unlimited expansion, as advocated by some actors in the environmental movements. The chapter summarizes the main points of difficulties and highlights from the international experience that there are limits that should restrict this expansion until a penetration of the order of 30% of the installed capacity of generation. This scenario may change in the meantime due to the greater presence of storage systems (possibly provided by the scale of penetration of electric mobility equipment and batteries), as well as in the Brazilian case if the environmental licensing conditions for the construction of hydroelectric plants with reservoirs could be changed to a more flexible level, so the Hydro power plants could function as large storage systems. It should be noted however that this hypothesis is today outside the context of Brazilian electric sector planning.