Brazil sold rights on Monday to build 39 new wind farms in the country, which will require an estimated 3.4 billion Brazilian reais ($1.5 billion) in investment, but failed to sell solar-powered projects as prices remain too high to find buyers.

Monday's so-called A-3 auction--in which winners have three years to bring projects online--was the first to include solar projects. More than 30 photovoltaic solar projects, totaling 813 megawatts of generating capacity, were registered to take part in the auction.

But with prices for solar power much higher than for other renewable sources such as wind and biomass, the auction failed to hire any solar projects.

The ceiling price for power to be sold at Monday's auction was BRL126 per megawatt-hour. Contracts are awarded to bidders that offer the biggest discount from that price. With solar power currently costing more than BRL200 per megawatt-hour in Brazil , it was widely expected that solar projects wouldn't make the cut during this auction.

During the auction, government agencies match up companies wanting to sell energy with distributors that need to buy energy.

Nineteen of the projects will be built in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The remaining 20 projects will be built in the country's northeast, spread out over the states of Bahia , Pernambuco, Ceara and Piaui. The wind projects hired on Monday have a total generating capacity of 897 megawatts.

This week's auction also required bidders to take responsibility for any delays in linking the power plants to transmission networks.

Slow licensing for transmission projects has led to some wind farms being completed in Brazil without any means to transmit that energy to consumers. For this auction, the government required generators to assume the responsibility, and any costs, for ensuring that the power projects are linked to the national power grid.
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