Brazil is poised to turn its first major energy storage auction into a test not only for developers but also for the industrial capacity of battery manufacturers . More than 296 GW have expressed interest in participating in the process , compared to market expectations of an allocation of between 2 and 5 GW in the December call for bids.
In that scenario, Edson Nagai, Technical and Commercial Director of Great Power , warns that the challenge will not only be in selecting the projects, but in determining which manufacturers will have the capacity to supply them.
“That’s 6,000 initiatives, a huge number of projects. Who will have the resources to produce all of this?” Nagai said in an exclusive interview with Energía Estratégica during The Smarter E South America.
The executive acknowledges his concern regarding the magnitude of interest in the call for proposals and, particularly, the capacity the industry will need to respond if a significant portion of these initiatives move forward .
The pressure on the supply chain is already beginning to spill over into the commercial sphere. Great Power, a supplier of cells and solutions for integrators and other manufacturers, is seeing an increase in inquiries as participants prepare their projects and analyze the terms of future contracts .
“Every day we receive more and more requests for price quotes and technical understanding, mainly because it is a very new product,” said the executive, who warns that there are still questions in the market regarding which components can be produced or sourced in Brazil , considering the auction requirements.
The concern, therefore, is not solely focused on the number of interested parties. Manufacturing scale, cell availability, systems integration, and delivery times could become decisive variables when projects that pass the technical and regulatory stages begin to demand equipment.
From record-breaking records to the ability to manufacture BESS
The number of registered projects raises another question about how contracts will ultimately be distributed and what conditions will determine competition among suppliers . Great Power believes that important decisions still need to be made before it can be known precisely what industrial capacity the market will need to mobilize.
“We are still unclear whether the government will divide this among many companies, we don’t know how it will be, whether it will be just about price, whether it will be divided in stages, whether any company will have any benefit or not,” Nagai stated.
In parallel, the discussion extends to which products will be eligible for financing from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), which components will fall under the nationalization criteria, and what role imported solutions will play . These are variables that could directly influence the configuration of supply chains for the awarded projects.
For Nagai, these unknowns still leave room for adjustments during the coming months, although they do not change the direction he sees for the Brazilian storage market.
“The bidding process is promising. I believe it's irreversible: from now on, there must be energy storage systems, for solar, wind, and any other type of energy generation, to supply the market,” he stated.
The industrial dimension becomes clearer when the large figures from the call for proposals are translated into an individual project . Nagai uses a 30 MW installation with a four-hour operating time, equivalent to 120 MWh of capacity , as a reference to illustrate the amount of equipment that a single initiative might require and to revisit the question of which suppliers will be prepared to respond at that scale.
The challenge could deepen if the first call for bids paves the way for a recurring market. The Brazilian private sector is already planning annual storage auctions and a contracting trajectory that could reach up to 8 GW by 2030 , which would force manufacturers to look beyond a single award and plan for long-term production capacity, local partnerships, cell supply, and technical services.
The supply challenge coincides with growing industrial interest. According to Markus Vlasits, president of the Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions (ABSAE), more than 20 BESS manufacturers are considering producing in Brazil , as the first auction begins to accelerate market prospects.
This scenario places manufacturers with large-scale production capabilities in a particularly relevant position. Great Power claims to be among the top ten cell manufacturers globally and currently has nine gigafactories in China, in addition to facilities in Turkey and Vietnam , Nagai explains.
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The company also has around 12,000 employees and an integrated research and development structure of 2,000 engineers in China , a deployment that the executive directly links to the ability to respond to markets where storage is beginning to scale rapidly.
But Great Power's strategy for Brazil isn't solely about selling finished systems under its own brand. The company aims to position itself within the supply chain as a supplier of switchgear for local integrators and manufacturers , some of whom then market the solutions under their own brands.
“We have some companies that already buy our cells and others with whom we are forming partnerships. They buy the cells and manufacture them. We are growing in Brazil,” Nagai explained.
This strategy becomes even more relevant in the face of a potential surge in demand resulting from the auction. If some of the awarded projects opt for local integration, the availability of cells and the ability to connect international suppliers with Brazilian manufacturers could become critical factors in meeting deadlines .
In that sense, Nagai emphasizes that the company's positioning aims to function as a supplier rather than as a direct competitor to all the actors present in the chain.
“ We want to produce the cells and offer them to those who do not have cell production ,” he says.
Technology to support the scale
Industrial capacity is complemented by a new generation of batteries. For stationary and BESS applications, Great Power focuses its offering on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology and develops high-capacity cells designed to extend lifespan and reduce degradation.
Among the solutions the company seeks to introduce in Latin America are the Ultra series of 588 Ah and 648 Ah batteries , designed to exceed 10,000 cycles , depending on operating conditions and usage profile. The proposal integrates the cells with management and conversion systems to adapt each BESS to the specific characteristics of the project.
Adaptation is especially important in Brazil due to regional differences and grid challenges. The high solar and wind power generation in the Northeast coexists with large consumption centers concentrated in the Southeast and South , which is why Great Power identifies storage as a tool to absorb renewable surpluses and subsequently inject them into the grid during peak demand or transmission constraints.
“ When you show that you have quality, that you have good assistance, good after-sales service, when you have technical support, that's what we're doing here today, explaining, understanding the customer's needs ,” the executive noted.
The other challenge of climbing BESS: what to do with the used batteries
But a massive expansion of energy storage opens a discussion that goes beyond how many systems the industry can manufacture . It also forces us to define what will happen to thousands of batteries once they reach the end of their useful life.
Nagai believes this issue still receives less attention than it needs in Brazil. Great Power says it already has a partner company in Brazil, contracted to manage this process. According to the executive, the batteries will be dismantled and their cells processed into black mass , a material from which lithium, phosphate, and other components can later be recovered.
“ It will remove the lithium, it will remove the phosphate, it will remove all the minerals and this comes back again to make batteries, to make other products that use these chemical elements ,” Nagai explained.
The company in charge of the process, which according to the executive has been operating for a decade, already carries out activities related to automotive manufacturers such as Stellantis, Toyota, Renault, and BMW , among other companies mentioned during the interview. Furthermore, it is preparing a central collection point in São Paulo to consolidate the collection of end-of-life materials.
Thus, the first major BESS auction begins to reveal an industrial challenge far broader than simply awarding a few gigawatts. Brazil will need a supply chain capable of providing cells, integrating systems, offering technical support, and managing the batteries at the end of their operational life.
For Great Power, the Brazilian opportunity could also become a gateway to deepening its Latin American expansion. The company already has a subsidiary in Chile, is developing business in Mexico, and is planning a subsidiary in Brazil with regional reach , while also seeking to expand its network of partners and integrators.
In that scenario, the record number of projects registered for the auction raises a question that runs through the entire chain: beyond how many developers want to compete, how many manufacturers will have the industrial capacity to convert that potential demand into actually installed BESS systems?