São Paulo: Governor Tarcísio targets sustainability plan with US$3.38 billion in private investments

By Luisa Purchio

The State of São Paulo government has officially launched the State Energy Plan 2050, which focuses on sustainability and intends to neutralize the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, reaching close to zero, by 2050.

Among the planned actions are 21 energy diversification projects with R$16.8 billion (US$3.38) in private investments, mapped by InvestSP.

This government agency structures initiative with the potential to raise funds in the market.

The projects include 14 initiatives in the energy area, three in the automotive sector, two in waste treatment, one in commerce, and one in mining.

In the energy area are planned:

• the construction of a natural gas hub in the Baixada Santista,
• a thermoelectric plant for the generation of renewable electricity based on biomass, biodigesters, and biomethane,
• five solar power plants,
• reactivation of Small Hydroelectric Plants (PCH),
• and the expansion of the ethanol transportation pipeline network.

The automotive sector projects include hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen trucks, and a vehicle consumption reducer factory.

In commerce, there is energy generation for consumption in the company’s operations, mining, energy efficiency, and fuel substitution.

This month, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republican) was in New York with the Secretary of Environment, Infrastructure, and Logistics of São Paulo, Natália Resende, to prospect investments with funds and international banks.

The sustainability projects that include energy diversification were presented and well received on the occasion.

“We saw a great interest from investors in this area, whether it’s the biogas part, low-carbon hydrogen, photovoltaic energy, and reservoirs.”

“We saw interest in many energy transition routes and a willingness to learn more about the projects and studies.”

“The dialogue was very productive, so we hope more investments will come,” Natália tells Gazeta do Povo.

LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS

The undertaking taken on by the Tarcisio government was started in the middle of last year when the then governor Rodrigo Garcia was preparing to position the state of São Paulo at the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27), which took place in Egypt.

For this, the government hired the University of São Paulo (USP), which carried out the project called “State Energy Plan 2050 – Race to Zero” through professors and researchers.

This plan focusing on sustainability replaced the previous one, the “Paulista Energy Plan,” from 2012 to 2020.

“The current plan differs from the previous one because it fundamentally aims at climate change and decarbonization, an issue that was not as latent in 2012 as it is now,” says Dorel Soares Ramos, coordinator of the plan by USP and professor of the Department of Energy and Automation Engineering at USP’s Polytechnic School.

“The goal is that the plan is completed by the end of the year to allow the opening of a public consultation still in 2023, with one month for contributions,” he adds.

With about 30 pages, the plan was divided into two phases, the first of which, of a more qualitative nature, was presented at COP27.

Since then, the second phase, more quantitative, revisits the proposals with more details and basis.

They were divided into five axes: environmental and social, technology, infrastructure, market, and regulation.

Besides the 21 projects that were developed by InvestSP, there are sustainability suggestions in the document that the Tarcisio government is already considering.

“Others that we are structuring within the basic sanitation pillar aim to encourage the production of energy from solid waste, with biogas, biomethane, and incentives for regionalization, together with the municipalities.”

“We already have some pilots, such as the production of energy to supply cars through the generation of sludge, of Sabesp in Franca, and a protocol and a partnership with the Swiss government studying renewable energy”, says the secretary Natália Resende.

According to Professor Dorel, other important initiatives are offshore wind power generation, which has great potential in the state, including for export, and hybrid projects that combine hydroelectric and solar power generation to install floating panels in reservoir areas and bypass dry periods and low water reservoir levels with solar power production.

CHALLENGES IN ENERGY DIVERSIFICATION

For Professor Célio Bermann, from the USP’s Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE-USP), one of the fundamental points for producing clean energy is the concept of distributed generation, also known as decentralized. An example of this application is the solar panels installed by consumers, who start to produce energy from their own homes.

Bermann draws attention, however, to the modifications that the 2012 resolution 482 of the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) underwent in the last government.

“The resolution suffered a process of dehydration, and several benefits that enabled an investment attraction for decentralized energy generation were removed by lobbying from distribution companies because they understand that they are losing market,” he says.

His calculation based on the most recent data, from 2021, from the Anuário Estatístico Energético do Estado de São Paulo, points out that currently 2/3 of the energy that is consumed in the state of São Paulo comes from fossil fuels.

According to Bermann, the current potential for increasing electricity production in the state through renewable sources, on the other hand, corresponds to only one-fifth of the state’s need for electricity consumption.

Thus, there is a prediction that the compensation of emissions by carbon credit will be inevitable, as well as the development of new technologies that increase the potential for clean energy generation, which is precisely what the Tarcísio government is prioritizing in its management.

With information from Gazeta do Povo

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