SunCast 015: Brazil is on the rise, with Rodrigo Barfield of Long Light Energy
A 2015 Financial Times article says, “Brazil is mired in its worst recession since the 1930’s, but entrepreneurs know how to find opportunities.” That sentiment is pervasive in the booming Brazilian solar market; despite economic turmoil, sky-high interest rates and fluctuating exchange rates, the Brazilian solar market grew to more than 72MW of interconnected DG systems!
Last year, I sat down with my friend Rodrigo because I was really interested in better understanding the Brazil market. He had just moved back to Brazil to run his new company, so I reached out and we chatted for a bit about what’s going on down there. This is part of what I’m calling The Founders Series, stories from entrepreneurs on the front lines of solar in Latin America.
In this episode of SunCast, you'll meet Rodrigo Barfield of Long Light Energy. Rod has had quite an interesting career from the World Bank and private equity in SE Asia to building Real Infrastructure in Central America.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
What Rod believes are the Biggest bottlenecks to DG solar in Brazil
The difference he sees among the various markets in Latin America and why, for him, Brazil represents by far the largest opportunity yet.
And how he really feels about some of the other markets!
Brasil’s distributed market regulations that are boosting solar DG (in particular Residential) installations.
His big question for Brazil is - How do you structure the deals to solve for Debt financing?
Today’s episode is full of information, so I hope you stay through to the end.
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