ENERGY & POWER

The 895MW Assu Sol project in northeast Brazil is the largest solar asset in ENGIE’ s global portfolio. Yet soon after entering operation, it encountered a familiar issue in high renewable grids – curtailment.

At times when supply exceeds grid demand or transmission capacity, operators are instructed to reduce or halt generation.

For energy-intensive data centre operators, such a surplus presents an opportunity. For generators, it represents lost revenue unless a flexible offtaker can absorb the excess electricity.

Curtailment creates edge opportunity Curtailment has become a growing challenge across Brazil since 2023, as rapid additions of wind and solar capacity have outpaced grid upgrades and demand growth. When infrastructure cannot transport or consume available power, renewable plants are forced offline.

Eduardo Sattamini, ENGIE’ s Country Manager for Brazil, says the company is assessing industrial offtakers that could be installed directly at Assu Sol to use electricity the grid cannot take.

“ We are looking at some possible offtakers,” he said in a recent call to journalists.

Two options are under consideration – battery storage systems and bitcoin mining data centres. Both can respond dynamically to fluctuating generation, but mining facilities offer particular operational flexibility.

Mining rigs can be switched on and off quickly, making them suitable for absorbing variable surpluses from solar generation. From a data centre perspective, this creates a model where compute capacity is co-located with renewable assets, operating opportunistically when power is available.

Brazil’ s policy environment has also shifted. The country’ s foreign trade council recently reduced import duties to zero on high-efficiency mining hardware until January 2028, lowering the capital cost of establishing such facilities.

50 April 2026