outubro, 25 2024

By Maíra Teixeira, from WWF-Brazil 

The fair, inclusive and popular energy transition is already a reality in Vila Limeira, a community of 90 people located on the banks of the Purus River, 853 km from Manaus, in Amazonas. With the installation, in August 2021, of the photovoltaic solar energy mini-grid, Vila Limeira became known in the region as a model that worked and bears the title of the first community in the south of Amazonas with 100% solar energy.  

According to the Living Planet Report 2024, launched by WWF on October 10, the way we produce and consume energy is the main driver of climate change, with increasingly serious impacts on people and ecosystems. We need to move quickly from fossil fuels to renewable energies in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming. 

Until 2021, the inhabitants of Vila Limeira lived on practically subsistence agriculture, producing manioc and its derivatives, açaí, chestnuts and tried to raise cattle and plant sugar cane. Today, they are working to recover the pasture and sugarcane area in an agroforestry system, restoring it with açaí and other native species. To this end, they are already working on a seedling nursery for the community and neighbors.  

This shows that the solar plant experience has the potential to become public policy for people who live in the forest and are disconnected from the Brazilian electricity system. “It was a dream that we knew would be difficult. Today we see that it was possible, together with the whole community and partners. We have new plans for development and generating more well-being for the whole community,” says Jonas Nogueira de Oliveira, a resident who is responsible for managing and maintaining Vila Limeira's solar system. 

For the last three years, the community has been experiencing a reality common to most of the Brazilian population: having 24-hour power at home and in the streets of the village. Before, it only had three hours of power a day with a diesel generator. And a lot has changed. Starting with the constant lighting at night, energy has also improved health and lifestyle in the area, with the use of refrigerators to preserve food that used to have large amounts of salt added to it (so that it would last longer), and opportunities for development, such as studying more and being able to attend university online.  

Access to Vila Limeira is complex, as it is to all the villages and communities within the Middle Purus Extractive Reserve. It is located on average 8 hours by boat from the city of Boca do Acre (Amazonas), but during the dry season, the journey can take up to 15 hours. The Resex has 89 communities with energy from the Light for All program, but nine still live on diesel generators, which are polluting and expensive. From the village to the state capital, you can only get there by boat, almost 900 kilometers.  

Everything in the community today revolves around energy. “We have water in the tap and we can shower in our homes. Younger people are accessing university. Energy is the means of development,” says pastor Gilase Oliveira. He recalls that before, “We used to spend 10 liters of diesel to have electricity for three hours a night. It costs R$100 an hour. Each family used to pay R$5,000 a year, now they pay R$720 a year, money that goes into a community fund.” As it no longer costs money to generate energy, residents check their household consumption every month and put the money into a community fund, which they plan to use to maintain and expand their own network. 

“Today we have eight people from our community studying at university, four women and four men. These students came out of our community school,” says teacher Aldo Junior Oliveira de Godoy.  

Social organization 

In 2021, Vila Limeira had 20 families and 80 people. After the power came on, five more families arrived. The community began to be formed in 1958, when three brothers left Paraíba to train the workforce of the Amazonian rubber plantations and populate the region, a development policy of the Brazilian state at the time. Today, the community is made up of the descendants of these pioneers and those who join the new generations and join the family. 

The Vila Limeira 100% Solar project came about as a joint initiative between Apavil - the Vila Limeira Residents' Association and WWF-Brazil, with the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and authorization from ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation). In August 2021, the solar plant was inaugurated.  

In Vila Limeira, all the houses, the school, the community center and most of the productive activities take place in close proximity. For this reason, we decided to design and implement an off-grid mini-grid, known in Brazil as an Isolated Electricity Generation and Distribution Microsystem (MIGDI). Adding up all the local energy demands, it was concluded that a 30kwp solar plant would be sufficient for the community's expectations. The system was designed with state-of-the-art equipment and technology, including a 15-year lithium battery bank and individual digital meters in all consumer units.  

Just like Vila Limeira, many communities in the south of Amazonas have been fighting for energy for decades, but this basic right is often denied. According to a study by the Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEMA), it is estimated that an investment of between R$7.2 and 38 billion will be needed to meet the objective proposed in the Light for All Program (LpT) of bringing electricity to almost a million people who still live without power in the Legal Amazon. 

Aurélio Souza, the UsinAzul engineer who designed the Vila Limeira mini-grid, says that the system was designed taking into account the demand at that time, but already allowing for slack due to projected growth, because of the pent-up demand from those who didn't have energy.  

“We know that there is a great desire to have household appliances. When we started planning the size and capacity of the Vila Limeira system, we surveyed the load that existed at the time and projected growth. Three years later, the system is still able to cope with the energy demand and everyone has appliances at home,” explains Souza. 

The community has always participated in the entire process, from installation to monitoring and managing energy consumption. The people were responsible for the physical works of the structure and were trained to maintain the system, as well as monitoring generation, consumption and battery charging. “Knowing how much is generated and controlling consumption is important for the durability and sustainability of the system and everyone's well-being,” says Pastor Gilase.   

Maintenance of the network was the responsibility of two residents, who accompanied the entire installation and were trained in the necessary maintenance. The solar plant has a control house where the equipment is located:  converters, controllers, batteries and clocks are centralized in a suitable and safe environment, away from possible flooding.  

In the analysis of Vinícius Oliveira Silva, an energy specialist at IEMA, community involvement throughout the process and a project designed with the local community in mind are important factors in the success of the energy solution. “The solar photovoltaic modules were installed on wooden structures chosen by the community, a material with a long life [20 years] to support the panels. Local knowledge was used to create the energy system solution, designed for the community, estimating consumption. The fact that the system is maintained and operated by them guarantees autonomy. When a repair needs technical support, they can solve it with just a phone call or a video. Maintenance is effective and fast. The energy doesn't run out.” 

For Daniela Gomes Pinto, Program Officer for South America at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, strengthening communities in the Amazon means giving them the conditions to fully exercise their means and ways of life, their desires, their future. “Access to renewable electricity, based on community governance, is a way for autonomous Amazonian communities to find fairer and more sustainable development paths,” she says. 

Next step: sociobioeconomics 

With the changes in daily life and in the lives of the people of Vila Limeira, the community is already putting new community development plans into practice, with the use of energy as a social and economic pillar. According to Gilase, the community wants to double the number of solar modules (plates) to increase the production of açaí for sale. Today, five tons are produced per year. The expansion is designed to increase production to 60 tons per year, including the production of neighboring communities. 

“We've already planted 40,000 seedlings of açaí, andiroba and ingá in an agroforestry system that will recover a pasture area that we tried, but it wasn't a good choice. It disturbed the land. Now we're going to recover in this [agroforestry] system,” explains Gilase. 

“Our life was very difficult before. I'm a family farmer and I work with manioc. Today we have pumps and we can wash the manioc to prepare flour faster, cheaper and in greater quantities. I couldn't use the generator power for work, it was expensive and I couldn't afford it because it was only for three hours and for everyone. Not to mention having to go down to the river to collect water,” recalls Raimunda Ferreira de Oliveira, a 47-year-old family farmer who was born in the village. 

For Alessandra Mathyas, conservation analyst at WWF-Brazil, the case of Vila Limeira provides a solution for the people distributed in the forest, who are still isolated from Brazil's electricity systems. “It can be scalable, as long as the diversities of the territories are taken into account, without the need to change the physical structure of each building in a community, especially those where community life takes place in close proximity and keeping the plant at a safe distance, with residents trained in maintenance and meter reading.”  

In short, the Vila Limeira case innovates by generating energy, improving well-being and supporting economic and socio-environmental development. “The solar plant has not negatively altered the dynamics of the community, nor has it affected the local landscape. It can inspire improvements in public electrification programs, but it is essential that communities are heard. You can't solve it if the concessionaire arrives with a ready-made package.” Alessandra believes that the concessionaire that provides service in the state of Amazonas should take a close look at this example. “This is how we can achieve universal access to energy in the state more quickly. And, finally, to promote energy inclusion, the right of all Brazilian citizens.”  

Change of concessionaire in Amazonas 

The energy supply in Amazonas is facing major difficulties, with all 62 municipalities in the state, especially rural and indigenous areas, suffering from a lack of electricity. The Amazonas Energia concessionaire, privatized in 2018 and acquired by the Oliveira Energia group, has failed to resolve financial and operational problems, including debts and energy thefts. In 2023, Aneel recommended that the concession lapse and, in June 2024, the government published a Provisional Measure to change control of the company. Âmbar Energia, owned by the J&F group, acquired the concessionaire for R$8 billion and the operation, which includes a R$10 billion contribution, is expected to be concluded in January 2025, depending on legal issues.