Investments bring solar energy to remote areas of Brazil

According to data from the latest demographic census from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), around two million Brazilians still do not have access to electricity in the country. 

These are people who live in small isolated communities and who, due to the lack of electricity, also end up not having access to a better quality of life.

Realizing this fragility, many entities have expressed solidarity with the situation and invested part of their capital in the development of projects that bring electricity from renewable sources to the residents of these locations.

In June of this year, around 750 residents of Vila Restauração, in the interior of Acre, for example, will have continuous access to energy through the installation of a solar system carried out by the companies Energisa Acre and Alsol.

Currently, the inhabitants of the riverside community have few hours of access to energy per day.  Another example of social action is that being produced by the Government of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, which at the beginning of the month announced the beginning of the universalization project of the Ilumina Pantanal program. 

The idea is to bring electricity to around 5,000 people who live in areas that are difficult to access and who do not yet have the service available this year. The initiative plans to supply 90,000 km² of the biome by the end of 2022, equivalent to the territories of the Netherlands and Denmark combined.

In total, more than 2 thousand isolated properties in the municipalities of Aquidauana, Corumbá, Coxim, Ladário, Miranda, Porto Murtinho and Rio Verde de Mato Grosso will benefit. The project began to be discussed in 2014 and has investments of R$ 134 million. While some communities are still waiting to benefit, others are already experiencing the new thing.

For at least five years, Bell Sol has been carrying out initiatives that bring energy to regions that do not have access to the resource.  “We have more than 25 projects in needy communities, in addition to the Bell Sol Social program, where every year we make photovoltaic solar kits available to a needy community or family,” said Walber Oliveira, the company's technical director.

At the turn of the year, residents of a residence in the city of Itingá of Pará, on the border of the state of Pará with Maranhão, were awarded the donation of two solar panels by the entity. 

Federal investment

At the end of last year, the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) and BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) signed a technical cooperation agreement to raise financial resources for the Mais Luz para a Amazônia program. 

The initiative aims to bring clean and renewable energy to 82 thousand families – around 350 thousand people – who live in riverside, indigenous and quilombola communities, in conservation units located in remote areas of the Legal Amazon.

The program envisages the use of renewable sources of electrical energy generation, mainly photovoltaic systems, and the replacement of small diesel or gasoline electrical energy generators, which are currently the only source of electrical energy for many families living in these remote regions.  The states that make up the Legal Amazon are: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and Maranhão.

Solar expansion

In February this year, Brazil reached the mark of 5 GW of installed power, according to data from ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency). According to ABGD (Brazilian Association of Distributed Generation) the growth projection of the modality for this year is greater than 50%. 

The association estimates that the DG segment should end 2021 with an installed capacity of more than 7 GW, even with all the negative effects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.