The income distribution of solar distributed generation adopters across brazilian states

Public policies to promote renewable energy have spread worldwide, but there are concerns that their benefits may flow disproportionately to wealthier households. This paper investigates the relationship between household income and residential solar photovoltaic distributed generation (PVDG) adoption in Brazil, nationally and within states, using two complementary strategies. First, we analyze nationally representative household survey data, using a proxy to identify PVDG adoption. Second, for systems installed during 2022-2024, we combine administrative records from 35 large distribution utilities with pre-installation electricity consumption and census-tract income distributions to infer adopters' positions in the income distribution. In the survey data, the richest income quintile accounts for 51.1% of adopters under national income thresholds and 50.3% under state-relative thresholds. In the consumption-based estimates, the richest state-relative quintile holds 55.0% of installed capacity, compared with 26.3% for the poorest 60%. Across states, the richest within-state quintile accounts for 33.4%-91.1% of survey-identified adopters and 45.3%-73.8% of installed capacity in the consumptionbased estimates. The agreement between strategies with distinct data and measurement assumptions reinforces the evidence that Brazil's net-metering benefits are strongly concentrated among higher-income households.