| Work Detail |
The test by the Institute of Energy and Environment (IEMA) showed that solar panels, inverters and storage batteries would cost R$38 billion and that over 33 years between 58 and 234 thousand tons of electronic waste would be generated, evaluating the waste management and reverse logistics aspects of these systems.
A research team has assessed the capacity of sector agents to meet the demand for universal access to electricity through the National Program for Universal Access and Use of Electricity – Light for All (LpT), including the economic aspects involved in the universalization process and the waste management and reverse logistics of these systems.
The results indicate a demand for up to 15 million photovoltaic modules, batteries and inverters, at a cost of 38 billion reals (about 7.4 billion dollars). Over 33 years, between 58,000 and 234,000 tons of electronic waste would be generated. “The work evaluates the Light for All Program and solar and battery technologies to serve remote communities,” summarizes one of the authors of the study and project manager at IEMA, Vinícius Oliveira.
The Light for All Program aims to universalize access to public electricity services in remote regions of the Legal Amazon using renewable energy sources. The diversification of renewable energy sources could reduce the waste generated by photovoltaic equipment and stimulate the development of a service chain in regions that will now have access to electricity services.
“The consolidation of the results shows the physical and economic dimension of access. In addition, the research shows that it can be less expensive for the population, which currently has energy from oil-based generators or is in the dark, by providing cheap and quality energy. If the economic orientation of public policies acted on the capital cost of the systems, the price of electricity from these systems could be lower than the price of energy charged by local distributors. This action, added to the already existing social electricity tariff, could alleviate energy poverty,” adds Oliveira.
Among the points of the study that the magazine highlighted are that the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) varies between 477 and 1,189 reais/MWh or between 92 and 230 dollars/MWh (cost of installation, operation and decommissioning related to the electricity generated throughout the useful life of the systems).
Furthermore, the review of international works pointed out that photovoltaic systems are the most widely used to bring access to electricity to remote regions and that there is no scientific literature addressing the management and reverse logistics of waste from renewable sources in remote regions. The Legal Amazon lacks adequate infrastructure to manage this electronic waste.
“A review of more than a hundred international scientific publications points to a trend towards using solar energy to universalize access in remote regions. Therefore, LpT could become a great global example of public policy by scaling up the use of this technology in a vast territory such as the Amazon,” said one of the authors of the study, Fabio Galdino dos Santos.
With the participation of Vinícius Oliveira da Silva, Fabio Galdino dos Santos, Isis Nóbile Diniz, Ricardo Lacerda Baitelo and André Luis Ferreira, the scientific article “ Photovoltaic systems, costs, and electrical and electronic waste in the Legal Amazon: An evaluation of the Luz para Todos Program” was published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (Volume 203) in July of this year. |
