Business is booming for private-sector generators in Brazil, despite the fact that the government is playing a major role in developing a new wave of nuclear reactors and large-scale hydroelectric plants. Traditional generation companies are investing heavily in the country, while new entrants have ambitious plans and the state is privatizing some key assets. High power prices, strong demand, and attractive investment models are behind the surge in investment that will go far in protecting the country from power supply problems come next decade.

Some feared the government was playing too prominent a role in new projects when it announced its new nuclear plan, which entails adding 4 gigawatts to the grid by 2030. Although the projects are attractive to suppliers, federal nuclear power company Eletronuclear will build and operate the plants. And a consortium majority owned by state and federal power companies won the project to develop Brazil’s first major hydro plant in years, the 3.15 GW Santo Antônio plant in the Amazon. Government involvement serves as a kind of subsidy in the project, considering that a purely private-sector consortium would be unable to afford the project’s low long-term selling price of $46.83 per megawatt hour, according to analysts. The country’s next major hydro plant, the 3.3 GW Jirau near the Santo Antônio site, is also expected to enjoy major state participation.

But there’s more to Brazil’s power story than just nuclear and large-scale hydro. Just ask billionaire Eike Batista, who plans to make his fledgling MPX one of the largest private power producers in the South American country. That’s an ambitious plan to say the least, considering MPX has never generated a single watt of power. The growth plan entails the flagship 5.4 GW Porto do Açu coal-fired generator, which will require $10.9 billion to develop by 2018.

And there are other investment opportunities aside from greenfield projects. The state of São Paulo is selling its controlling stake of power company Cesp, and federal development bank BNDES is looking to sell its 49 percent ownership of power holding-company Brasiliana. Those sales will inject billions of private-sector dollars into Brazil’s fast growing private power industry.