Deal factsCountry: Brazil · Technology: Battery storage · Stage: Tender · Size: 297 GW of registered bids · Parties: EPE, ANEEL, CATL, Moura
Brazil’s first national auction for battery energy storage has become the most heavily subscribed procurement in the country’s power sector history. Energy planning agency EPE registered 6,091 project bids representing roughly 297 GW of power capacity for the 2026 Capacity Reserve Auction for Energy Storage (LRCAP), and Chinese cell giant CATL has responded by forming a supply partnership with Brazilian battery maker Moura to serve the projects that win contracts.
The scale of interest is striking. EPE put the registered total at 296,807 MW across the two auction categories, a record for any Brazilian energy auction. The procurement was created by Normative Ordinance No. 136 of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, dated 1 June 2026, and is split into LRCAP National Storage, reserved for battery systems that meet domestic content requirements, and LRCAP Storage, which is open to all other eligible systems. Both rounds are designed to secure firm power availability for the Brazilian grid from 2028 onwards.
Registration is not the same as qualification. EPE will now run technical reviews and only projects that clear that stage will be allowed to compete, so the final volume offered at auction is likely to be a fraction of the headline figure. Even so, the number of registrations signals how quickly developers have mobilised since regulator ANEEL approved Brazil’s first dedicated market rules for storage in June 2026, establishing its authority over storage as a power sector activity and setting out network access and revenue stacking arrangements for batteries that provide multiple services.
Suppliers are positioning accordingly. CATL, which held around 20% of the global battery storage cell market in 2025, unveiled its collaboration with Moura at Intersolar South America in São Paulo. The company says the arrangement allows its equipment to satisfy local content mandates while drawing on Moura’s experience with inverters and power conversion systems in the Brazilian market. Fellow Chinese cell maker Cornex, with about 9% of the global cell market last year, has signed a 1.5 GWh cell supply agreement with Windey Energy Technology Group, which opened its Camaçari energy storage factory in Bahia in late June. Sungrow, ranked third among system integrators globally with a 9% share, reports 25 GW of cumulative PV inverter orders and 10 GWh of battery storage orders across Latin America.
Why does this matter?
Brazil’s auction is the largest single storage procurement signal yet in Latin America, and the local content track means winning depends on domestic manufacturing partnerships as much as cell price. For developers, financiers and suppliers, it sets the template for how batteries will be contracted in the region’s biggest power market.
What happens next?
EPE will complete its qualification of the registered projects before the two auction rounds are held. Suppliers without a Brazilian manufacturing footprint will be watching how strictly the domestic content rules are applied in the National Storage category, and whether further localisation deals follow the CATL and Moura announcement.
Sources: Energy-Storage.News: CATL targets opportunities in Brazil’s capacity reserve auction, as regulator receives nearly 300GW of bids; EPE: 2026 Power Capacity Reserve Auction for Energy Storage: EPE registers record number of projects
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