A total of 156 projects, or about 6 GW of potential capacity, will be competing in the upcoming energy auction for supply contracts that could last between seven and 15 years to serve the northern state of Roraima, Brazil.

Bids for the planned May 31 auction include thermoelectric plants, renewable facilities and hybrids with battery storage, Reuters reported March 14, citing state-owned Empresa de Pesquisa Energética.

AES Corp.'s AES Tietê Energia SA, Italy's Enel Green Power and Brazil's Eneva SA were among the companies that attended the public consultation for the auction.

Roraima is not connected to the rest of Brazil's power grid. It imports energy from crisis-ridden Venezuela, a country experiencing blackouts. There is also a concern that Venezuela may cut energy exports given Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of its embattled neighbor, according to another Reuters report.

To also lessen its dependence on Venezuela, Brazil plans to declare that a power line project to connect Roraima with the Amazonas state's grid is "of national interest" to speed up the start of its construction in the second half.

Brazil is working on accelerating renewable energy deployment. In February, its government initiated the process of joining the International Renewable Energy Agency. According to IRENA, the country is the world's ninth-largest wind market with more than 11 GW installed. Brazil targets 24 GW of wind capacity by 2024.

In Chile, miner Anglo American PLC launched a pilot photovoltaic plant on the Las Tórtolas tailings pond to help power operations at its Los Bronces copper mine. Described as the first in the world, the project is on a floating island.

With a capacity of 86 kW, the project is expected to generate 150,000 kWh per year and reduce water evaporation from the surface of the pond for recirculation in the mining process.

"We believe that it should be a priority to re-imagine mining, challenging the way things have always been done. By actively developing new solutions and stimulating new ways of thinking and working, we move towards increasingly sustainable mining," said Patricio Chacana, vice president of the Los Bronces operations.

The project also earned praise from Chilean Mining Minister Baldo Prokurica, who said it was an example of how the country is taking the lead in improving mine waste treatment, according to Bloomberg News.

The company will use results from this project to determine where to pilot it at a larger size.

Mexico's goal to triple installed wind capacity could create 35,000 jobs at the end of the six-year term, news website REVE reported, citing Mexican Association of the Wind Energy Industry President Leopoldo Rodríguez Olivé.

Growing capacity to about 15,000 MW by 2024 would require investments of between $12 billion and $14 billion. "This size is the opportunity for Mexico, it is very immediate if we know how to take advantage of it and the reality is that with all the technological advances that we have seen as potential, it could even double," Rodríguez Olivé was quoted as telling state-owned news agency Notimex in an interview.

The Mexican government enacted a comprehensive energy reform in 2013 to end the monopoly of state-owned petroleum company Petróleos Mexicanos SA de CV. It was one of the first countries to embed its climate energy target in domestic legislation, according to the International Energy Agency.

Elsewhere

* Lekela Power B.V. signed a power purchase agreement for a 250-MW wind farm in Egypt.

* Tohoku Electric Power Co. Inc. is investing in developing a 700-MW offshore wind farm in Japan, Recharge News reported.

* The consortium of Saudi Arabia's ACWA POWER and Kuwait's Gulf Investment Corp. G.S.C. and Alternative Energy Projects Co. won a 500-MW tender to develop the Ibri II solar plant in Oman, pv-tech reported.

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