Oh Sun, don't forget

Will this week starting be different? Will the week that begins go down in history in a positive way? Will we change the culture of coronelismo in this country? Will we continue to keep power and opportunities in the hands of a privileged few?  

NO! He arrives! The sun rises every day for everyone and so it will be this week. Let's show that the union of thousands can change the history of a country and the entire planet.

Are we about to return to the cave era in relation to the energy transition, electric mobility and the 4.0 revolution in Brazil? The false idea brought through the insistence of lobbies billionaires from large energy corporations – who continue trying to avoid the inevitable – the era of renewable, clean energy and distributed energy resources and the digitalization process that the entire global electricity sector is going through.

We had this myopic vision when in telecommunications companies when Skype, WhatsApp and so many other innovative models emerged that threatened the status quo through digital and disruptive solutions, it was also like this with Uber x Taxis, Airbnb x hotel chain, among other stories.

The recent case of GD (distributed generation) in Brazil brings to light a “dirt under the carpet” – since false information by unethical companies and organizations designed to inappropriately use their influence against the distributed generation distort the facts, act without due ethics and what is worse, they create facts where they do not exist.

Initially, when we talk about resistance to the distributed generation segment, energy distribution companies immediately come to mind.

However, the problem is not restricted to them, since there are other segments that try to impose their restrictions, either to limit or to try to extinguish the compensation system that currently exists in Brazil.

As examples of this resistance, we have certain free market companies (ACL), energy traders, centralized renewable or fossil energy generators – oil, gas, nuclear and other sources

In developed countries such as Germany, the USA, Japan and China itself, the end of the manufacture of combustion cars and the end of thermal and nuclear energy have already been decreed. However, this same technology is pushed to the less developed world, and apparently Brazil is the target of this lobby toxic and unsustainable and will significantly delay the development of our country, as well as significant environmental impacts.

We started the year with the approval of MP 998 (Electric Energy Consumer Law – Law 14,120/2021), which allocates extremely important resources to the research and development of renewable sources for nuclear energy, prioritizing Gas thermal plants, delaying the achieving our sustainable development goals.

However, the target now is distributed generation, which since 2012 has generated more than 240,000 jobs, billions in investments and tax collection, not to mention the direct benefits for the environment and the entire population – employment, income and sustainable development.

But, again, the narrative is that the poor pay for the rich to be able to generate their own energy, through distributed generation projects – forget it!

This is the same retrograde context now used to remove tax incentives from books, under the allegation that only the rich read books. In other words, the men who represent us in charge of this country, instead of solving the problem of universal access to culture, prefer to transform the problem into a fundraising opportunity, worsening the problem.

Distorted studies and numbers that do not consider any of the benefits of DG technology were used by consultancies hired by the regulatory body to justify charging for the use of Fio in distributed generation – without considering the benefits it brings to the entire distribution network throughout Brazil .

There is no way not to fear that this mistaken view of the bodies (which should regulate our energy sector impartially) will end up causing the same effect for Brazilians as it did in Spain, when attitudes similar to the Brazilian one extinguished the DG market there.

Years after regulatory change and poorly managed in Spain. They tried to reverse it, however, too late. The mistake made there failed to bring about the recovery of the distributed generation market. We cannot let the same mistake end the DG market in our country.

Let's fight for the DG sector, combat false information and use legal logic to explain, in a simple way, all the advantages of distributed generation. Demonstrating that the cause and effect relationship, now used to judge whether an action is legal, illegal, whether it will cause any damage, loss or guilt for the party being judged or reason for the opposing party, must always be conducted with the shield of ethics and truth.

For this reason, there is no reason to say that the poor would pay for the rich, when they generate their own energy. The sum of all generation from consumers who produce their own energy does not even represent 0.6% of all energy produced in Brazil.

The losses in centralized generation and transmission of all energy generated (which today correspond to an average of 10%) represent a much higher percentage than the percentage of DG penetration in the Brazilian energy matrix.

Now, a real nonsense, since this loss, due to long transmission and distribution lines, is shared and paid by everyone: poor and rich. Even if we reached close to 15% of distributed generation penetration, we would still only be helping to mitigate this problem, as the “leaky bucket” or technical losses of the electrical system only grow.  

It turns out that the inefficiency of an obsolete system and the dispatch of very expensive thermoelectric plants, paid for by all energy consumers, are not analyzed by those who do not support distributed generation in Brazil.

What is the point of burning, literally, billions of reais (annually) in subsidies given to thermal plants to pollute the environment and generate the most expensive energy in the country, with the same losses mentioned above?

In this subsidy, which really exists and is paid by poor and rich, no one wants to touch it. The argument of these thermal plants and their defenders is that renewable sources are intermittent and cannot guarantee the continuous supply necessary to keep the system standing.

If half of the same billions that are paid in subsidies for thermal power generation were used to develop distribution-scale storage solutions, all the excess energy produced by distributed generators could be stored and injected at times with less sun or wind.

All this energy could be used to preserve the water mirrors of hydroelectric plants, storing energy (literally wind and sun) in the form of water, for use when necessary, without pollution and without this cost being shared across society as a whole. What connection is there then between the use of thermal plants and subsidies and the taxation of solar energy?

What nexus is there in the Free Market, the way we have it today in the country, in the huge plants with solar, wind, hydroelectric and thermal sources that produce energy far from consumption centers, with all the losses already mentioned and these with all the subsidies? which guarantee up to 50% discount on their rates for large corporations to use. Subsidies paid by everyone, poor and rich.

It turns out that the free consumer remains captive to these companies, paying their very expensive monthly bills and, in fact, consuming energy that is generated by much more expensive sources and, whose subsidies are paid by everyone. What's the point in that?

Finally, what is the point of halting the development of an entire country, allowing it to remain with “the sun that cannot be seen”, to keep a few individuals concentrating power, resources and investments that could bring about a real economy, for millions, in favor of full, sustainable and balanced development – but this is with the sun that we want to see rise for everyone.

“Oh sun, see if you don’t forget and enlighten me, I need you here, Oh sun, see if you enrich my melanin, only you make me smile” – as composer Vitor Kley said. May the sun light up the heads of these people who don't know how beneficial distributed generation is for Brazil, especially through the Sun - from solar roofs and all other sources of clean and renewable energy - and that we let DG grow without throwback – because only you make me smile: Oh Sun!