EN 
PT_BR 
Concern about global warming and the future of the planet has intensified debates about the need to create initiatives that seek to promote projects anchored in the perspective of 4D Energy (Decarbonized, Decentralized, Diversified and Digital).
Scientists from UN (United Nations), for example, already warn that the global goal is to at least keep the increase in temperatures to 1.5°C so that it is possible to reduce the environmental and social impacts caused over the past decades by the large amount of greenhouse gases that were released into the atmosphere.
In Brazil, the creation of a Hub that counts on the involvement of industry, companies in the energy sector and academic society, has been highlighted for its proposal: to join forces through partnerships to encourage the development of new technologies linked to renewable sources.
At the beginning of the month, the project was presented in an online event, called “O Verde Conecta”, and was attended by executives and professionals from the energy sector. One of the companies that is part of the Hub is Unicoba, a national company in the energy storage segment with stationary lead and lithium batteries, with almost 50 years of experience in the market.
In an interview with Solar Channel, Marco Américo D. Antonio, CEO of Unicoba, gave more details about the initiative and commented on the company's and the solar sector's growth prospects for the coming years. Check out the main highlights:
Canal Solar: At the beginning of May, a project was presented that aims to discuss technological innovations, such as electric mobility and 4D Energy. One of the companies behind this initiative is Unicoba. What could you tell us about this Hub?
Marco Américo: “This is an initiative by Unicoba together with other market partners. The idea is to bring these and other companies together in order to create alliances to accelerate the promotion of technologies that are still very recent in Brazilian industry. What we have done is precisely to attract new players to participate in the Hub and help develop projects that accelerate the evolution of Industry 4.0 as a whole.
To date, in addition to the group formed by distributors and technological partners, we also have a venture capital fund to bring startups into this ecosystem and a partnership with FUNDEP (Research Development Foundation), focused on the academic side of research. and development”.
Is there already any prospect of launches involving 4D energy from this Hub?
“The concept of 4D is formed by the “Ds” of Digital, which is all data monitoring aimed at improving the efficiency of the systems; The Diversification, with more than one energy source working together; The Decentralization, which is the distributed and centralized generation closest to consumption; and the Decarbonization, which is the use of clean energy on a large scale.
As the Hub was launched in the first week of May, we will need to wait a little longer to announce any results. We intend to bring in a greater volume of partners so that the initiative grows even further and becomes extremely relevant to the market. After that, we can start presenting results as quickly as possible.”
In this sense of action, how has Unicoba's participation in the solar energy market been in recent years? How do you see this market, especially in relation to the battery segment?
“The market is very promising. We are a company that has existed since 1973 and we provide storage solutions for both portable equipment, such as lithium batteries for notebooks and cell phones, and stationary lead and lithium batteries.
Within the solar sector, stationary lithium batteries are the most recent and the ones we are particularly enthusiastic about. Currently, we have seen greater adoption of this technology, especially in off-grid systems composed not only of batteries, but also of other equipment, to serve segments such as Telecom, in which we have a representative presence.
In this aspect, we see a more recent adoption of off-grid systems to expand 4G networks, already aiming to implement 5G technology. This is a front on which we have worked a lot, in addition to More Light for the Amazon with the sale of stationary lithium batteries and the implementation of systems for energy distributors, such as Equatorial, Energisa and Amazonas Energia.
Furthermore, we also see an adoption of storage solutions among prosumers (producer and consumer) due to the change in the regulatory framework. In this change, there is a tendency, over time, for storage to stop being carried out on the electrical grid due to the charging of Wire B and to be carried out using lithium batteries, which bring a series of benefits, such as a longer useful life. 10 years. These, I would say, are the main segments linked to battery storage today.”
Speaking of investments, at the end of April, Unicoba announced investments in three new battery lines at the Manaus (AM) factory, with the goal of producing 10 million units per year. Will this new investment be reflected in new hires to supply labor in production?
“These lines are very interesting, because they are all automated and require good knowledge from professionals to be able to operate them. As we have invested heavily in automation and Industry 4.0 projects, we are reinforcing our engineering team and plan to hire at least 100 new employees for the Manaus factory.
In the last two years, the company has grown by approximately 30% and we intend to continue growing even more. Our outlook for the future is increasingly positive, even though the market is a little troubled due to all the economic consequences caused by the war in Europe.”
