Atlas Renewable Halts $1B Brazil Solar Plan Amid High Curtailment but Continues Growing 8+ GW Portfolio Across Americas

BlackRock-backed Atlas Renewable Energy halted $1 billion in planned investment in Brazil after high curtailment rates and frequent rejections of renewable power by the national grid operator, chief executive Carlos Barrera told Reuters on Wednesday.

Barrera spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of the SNEC photovoltaic conference in Shanghai. 5 gigawatts of projects on hold where construction had been scheduled to begin.

Atlas Renewable Energy is one of the biggest solar power producers in South America and Latin America's largest privately-owned renewables independent power producer. The company was founded less than a decade ago and is backed by BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners. 4 gigawatts across the Americas.

2 gigawatts are in advanced development or construction stages. In Brazil, Atlas holds 10 separate projects that are either operational or in various stages of development. Curtailment rates reached about 27 percent for solar and 16 percent for wind in 2025, according to Rystad Energy estimates.

Both figures were much higher than the previous year. In the current quarter, curtailment rates for Atlas' operational projects ranged as high as 15 to 25 percent, Barrera said. Fitch Ratings expects Brazilian renewable energy projects to continue experiencing curtailment until 2030.

The agency pointed to the Graça Aranha transmission line, which is expected to expand transfer capacity between the Northeast and Southeast regions that year. Fitch said curtailment stems from the rapid increase in intermittent renewables on the national grid combined with lagging construction of transmission infrastructure and demand capable of absorbing continued capacity additions.

com reported the details of Barrera's comments and the supporting data from Rystad Energy and Fitch Ratings.