Solar Panels and Batteries Are Changing Life in Brazil’s Amazon

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Outside of the Amazon’s cities and towns, about 1.2 million people live in Indigenous and riverine communities deep in the rainforest. They turn to generators but run them only a few hours a day to save fuel, which has only gotten pricier amid global supply disruptions from the Iran war. 

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Until recently, this was the case in Três Unidos, a community of the Kambeba people that supports itself through eco-cultural tourism. 

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Its electricity came from a diesel generator that ran intermittently. A federal program called Luz Para Todos (Light for All) had supplied residents with solar kits and batteries, but these provided enough energy only for minimal lighting, and not enough for refrigeration. 

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Without the ability to store food, residents depended on costly ice. “All our profit went to buy ice,” said Neurilene Kambeba, who runs a restaurant and a guesthouse. 

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The solar kits met “social needs, but not productive ones,” said Valcléia Lima, deputy superintendent at the nonprofit Foundation for Amazon Sustainability, known as FAS. “Without adequate energy, communities are left without water, without food preservation and without the ability to generate income,” she said.  

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In December, Três Unidos got a new solar-battery microgrid system. Around-the-clock power enables refrigeration, and the community has cut back dramatically on diesel, burning roughly 475 gallons or 1,800 liters less per month. Occupancy at Neurilene Kambeba’s guesthouse has increased by 70%, now that tourists can use fans for the whole night. Visitors can also pay for handicrafts with credit cards, a consequence of both reliable energy and omnipresent Starlink dishes. 

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The Três Unidos microgrid was financed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, in partnership with the German Society for International Cooperation, a federal development agency, and FAS. The system includes 320 solar panels and 120 batteries and is community-managed, with residents trained to operate and maintain the equipment. Households make monthly contributions to a shared fund to cover upkeep. 

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Três Unidos is the fifth community to benefit from FAS’s microgrid program. Nearby Santa Helena do Inglês has had a microgrid since 2021 and recently implemented a new system to power an ice production facility. That’s expected to reduce costs for local fishermen, who will no longer need to travel all the way to Manaus to buy ice, only to see half of the cargo melt on the way back. 

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The microgrid in Tumbira powers village infrastructure, including the school, health center and water system. Like Santa Helena’s system, it was donated by and gets technical support from UCB Power. UCB, which has a plant in Manaus’ free trade zone, is testing sodium batteries alongside lithium ones in Tumbira to evaluate their performance in the Amazon’s hot and humid weather. 

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Markus Vlasits, head of the Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions, says the expansion of solar-battery microgrids is constrained by a lack of viable financing models. Large hybrid power systems in cities can attract public funding and private investment, while Luz Para Todos supplies small household solar kits. Microgrids fall in between, so depend on grants and pilot programs. 

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“We need to find ways to make this technology more accessible to smaller communities, as they typically lack the financial capacity to invest on their own,” said Vlasits, who is also managing director at NewCharge Energy, which participated in Tumbira’s microgrid system. 

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Roberto de Mendonça, a former logger who is now a lodge owner in Tumbira, said the next step there should be extending solar power beyond public infrastructure to the community’s households, so residents don’t have to depend on an unstable grid or diesel as a backup. That would help the local economy, particularly tourism, grow, he said. 

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“If all communities had solar energy, it would be a clean solution that strengthens sustainability,” he said. “Energy brings quality of life, progress, income and education — it brings everything.” 

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