|
We need to find new ways of bringing electricity
to increasingly more distant communities,
like those of Marajó Island, without depleting natural resources
|
|
The fishing village of Caju Una sits 18 kilometres from downtown Soure, on Marajó Island (PA). The community has little more than 50 houses, most made of wood and built on stilts. Until recently, many young people would leave the village because it did not have electricity or a road to reach the municipality’s urban area. The arrival of electricity in 2002 transformed the local environment. “Many people came back after we got electricity”, says fisherman Pedro Gonzaga dos Santos, owner of a small business. “Now we don’t need to salt the fish. We have a huge freezer that holds nearly 80 kilos of fish.”
Electricity is delivered to the 20,000 inhabitants of Soure by the Guascor Group, owner of a thermoelectric generation plant with five generators in the city. Rationing used to be common, and the equipment frequently burned out due to voltage fluctuations. “Today, power outages are a lot rarer, and we have the opportunity to make a little extra cash”, says Aldo Vicente Costa, resident of Vila do Pesqueiro, whose daughter Tainara helps her mother to make frozen treats. |
 |
Going Beyond
Guascor, which specialises in supplying electricity through diesel-fuelled generators, saw its project to take electricity to isolated communities in the states of Acre, Pará and Rondônia threatened. “In 2005, we came to ABN AMRO REAL to try to get 85 refinanced for foreign currency debts we had with other banks, which was hampering the project’s financial balance. But the Bank’s team went beyond: they studied a comprehensive financial solution and shared our environmental concerns, and we ended up closing a much bigger deal than what we expected”, says Marcela Bragatto, the company’s Financial Director. After ten years in the local industry, the company now supplies electricity to about 1.8 million people in 71 cities in northern Brazil, where linking to the national power grid is physically impossible. In spite of burning fossil fuels being a non-renewable power source, Guascor features performance standards that take into account environmental impacts: it operates at fuel consumption levels below the Eletrobrás standards, or about 10% less in terms of pollutant emissions. “In all these years we’ve never been penalised by the inspection agencies”, Marcela adds.
|
More people, more power, less planet
But in bringing electricity to remote communities we face another dilemma: the planet’s population continues to increase, and electricity consumption is growing as well. How can we keep growing without depleting our natural resources? The solution to the problem lies with investing in alternative and renewable energy sources such as wind power and biodiesel. In the past two years we have financed four wind parks in Brazil and the development of 20 small hydroelectric plants, ventures which will be able to meet the needs of over three million people. We have also financed two biodiesel production plants capable of supplying 25% of the domestic market for this fuel. These are the tangible results of an effort that began in 2002, when we started studying and assessing sustainability projects related to the development of Brazil’s infrastructure. “Our initial idea was to look for a comfort zone between risk and return for investors, both in the financial area and in addressing the principles of sustainability”, says Guilherme Alice, who runs our Project Finance & Advisory for the Energy, Oil, Gas and Infrastructure sector. |
|
| |
|
| the environment |
| |
|
| Millennium Goal |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Fisherman Pedro Gonzaga dos Santos enjoys two benefits of electricity: the freezer that helped him grow his small business, and watching television |
|
