Brazil
will
auction off licenses at the end of this month for more than 3,500 megawatts of
new electricity-generation projects that are set to come online in five years,
energy research corporation EPE said Wednesday.
Bidders on Aug. 29 will compete for licenses to build and operate hydroelectric
dams and thermoelectric plants that use coal and biomass as fuel.
The biggest project is the 400-megawatt Sinop dam on the
Teles
Pires
River
, a
tributary of the Amazon. If the 700MW Sao Manoel dam obtains preliminary
environmental licensing in time, it may be licensed at a later auction set for
Dec. 13, the EPE said.
Licenses for 16 smaller hydroelectric plants will also be up for grabs, with a
total capacity of 376MW.
The auction also includes three coal-fired plants with a total generating
capacity of 1840MW, and 16 biomass-fired plants with a total capacity of 919MW.
The winner of the auction is determined by who offers to sell energy from the
projects at the lowest price. The power plants have to begin producing energy by 2018.