A Portuguese engineering company, Afaplan has focused its operations in Brazil on renewable energies – wind and solar. Gonçalo Sousa Soares, the company’s CEO, spoke about the challenges and opportunities in the country.
ORIGIN
“In 2014 we won the first green energy contract in Rio Grande do Norte. As of 2016, the arrival of large multinationals in the energy sector such as Enel [italiana] and EDF [britânica] helped boost the business until in 2018 we focused our operations in Brazil on renewables. In the last two years we have tripled our revenue in the country, with R$ 59 million in 2021. About 50% of global revenue”
RENEWABLE
“World environmental policy has created strong pressure on non-renewable energies. Today Afaplan only works with the oil and gas sector in Guinea and Mozambique, but in very small quantities. What we are seeing is the closure of several refineries around the world. In Brazil, investment in renewables has grown a lot”
CHALLENGES IN BRAZIL
“The first was financial adequacy. The second, labor. We are a people company. We sell gray matter. Brazil has many qualified people in the technical area, but it lacks engineers. Covid also got in the way of training and monitoring the teams in the field”
PERSPECTIVE
“Today, we have 22 projects with clients such as Enel and Canadian Solar. One of them in São Paulo and the others from Minas Gerais upwards. Brazil is a power, but the low real alienates investors due to the impact on returns”
(Note published in issue 1257 of Dinheiro Magazine)
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