In a landmark move that will fundamentally reshape Brazil’s green energy infrastructure, State Grid Corp of China has broken ground on a 1,468-kilometer ultra-high voltage power superhighway, marking the largest electricity transmission investment in the South American nation’s history.
The massive 800-kilovolt direct current transmission line will serve as a vital energy artery, channeling bundled wind, solar and hydropower from Brazil’s resource-rich northeast directly to major central and eastern load centers, it said.
Independently invested, constructed and operated by State Grid’s Brazilian subsidiary under a 30-year concession agreement, the megaproject leverages China’s mature UHV technology.
UHV transmission lines refer to power transmission cables operating at voltages exceeding 800 kV of direct current or 1,000 kV of alternating current.
Scheduled for full operation by 2029, the project, in addition to the nearly 1,500-km transmission line, features two newly built converter stations and related supporting facilities, and boasts a rated transmission capacity of 5 million kilowatts, it said.
It also marks the third overseas UHV transmission project undertaken by the State Grid.
Industry experts believe that by bundling clean energy sources — including wind, solar and hydropower — and channeling them directly to major load centers, the project will significantly enhance regional power supply security and reliability.
Ye Xiaoning, a senior engineer at the new energy department of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, said the project, the largest power transmission concession project by investment scale in Brazil, is of monumental significance.
Leveraging mature 800-kV direct current technology, the project clears the bottleneck for renewable energy delivery from northeastern Brazil. It not only drives local low-carbon development but also fully exports China’s UHV technology alongside its construction and operation systems, setting a new benchmark for energy infrastructure cooperation across Latin America, he said.
Ye believes that the internationalization of China’s domestic UHV standards will also affect the global market share for both Chinese manufacturers and dominant multinational companies.
China is now deploying UHV technology on a large scale and its effort to internationalize its own UHV standards could yield greater global market share for Chinese UHV technologies, he said.
Ye believes that the fact that State Grid and other Chinese companies display growing knowledge in high-end UHV technologies demonstrates the dramatic advancement in Chinese research and development capabilities.
In this area, China is becoming a builder of innovative indigenous technology, which, in turn, should help to facilitate the internationalization of China’s own UHV standards, he said.
Once completed, the power transmission superhighway will clear the existing bottlenecks hampering the outward delivery of new energy from the northeast. Beyond securing electricity for the capital region, the project serves as a critical catalyst for Brazil’s sustainable economic and social development.
It is projected to facilitate the consumption of over 20 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually. This is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 6.84 million metric tons each year, helping the country optimize its national energy resource allocation and aggressively accelerating its structural shift toward a green, low-carbon future, said the company.
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