Around 500,000 families are not served by electricity distributors in Brazil, and the Amazon is home to 70% of them, according to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). Solar energy is the biggest bet for indigenous, riverside and extractive communities, which also rely on wind energy projects and micro hydroelectric plants, which have been tested by NGOs.
Since 2017, a community has been served by the distributor Celpa, with the installation of photovoltaic panels in homes, schools and health centers in the Verde Para Sempre extractive reserve, in Pará.
“Before, to preserve the fish we used to add salt, but that causes high blood pressure, right? Now we can catch it, store it, and drink cold water. And just the fact that we don’t have to use the lamp anymore, we don’t have to buy more fuel, and we don’t have to hear that noise from the generator anymore is already very good,” says Margarida Ribeiro da Silva, community leader of the Verde Para Sempre reserve.
