Promoting Solar Water Heating in Brazil

1. Promoting Solar Water Heating in Brazil

2. Current water heating technology in Brazil

3. Current water heating technology in Brazil • Flow-through type electric showers are the main form of water heating in the Brazilian residential market • Installed in more than 67% of homes • Accounts for 6% to 8% of the total electricity consumption • Are responsible for 18% of national electricity demand during peak hours • US$ 10 to install an electric shower heater in a home requires US$ 900 in electricity generation and distribution • Electric showers represents 30% of home electricity bills

4. Trends in water heating technologies • The use of electric shower heaters is likely to increase under a business-as-usual scenario • There is a clear relationship between rising income and energy consumption for heating among grid-connected Brazilian households • The roughly 20 million people currently without electricity in the country will likely demand electric hot water systems when they eventually receive electricity • 5 million new homes with electricity will demand 6,000 MW just for water heating with electric showers

5. Brazil: 2,200 hours of insolation => 15 trillion MWhor 50,000 times Brazil’s electricity consumption Atlas Solarimétrico do Brasil: FAE/UFPe

6. SWH social, economic and environmental advantages • Reduced demand in peak hours • Reduced demand for investment in generation and distribution • Improved quality of electricity distributed • Produced by small and medium sized Brazilian companies • Generate more jobs per energy unit • Mitigate local air pollution and impacts of new dams • Mitigate GHG emissions

7. Jobs generated by different energy sources Goldemberg et al: Ethanol learning curve: the Brazilian experience

8. SWH has not “taken off” in the Brazilian market 2003, www. iea.org

9. SWH installation 2004: • Brazil 350,000 m2 • Europe 1,000,000 m2 • China 12,000,000m2

10. Barriers to SWH technology in Brazil • High up-front system costs • Constraints on the availability of financing • Non-supportive building codes • Lack of awareness of the technology’s multiple advantages, characteristics, and aesthetic solutions on the part of architects, engineers, builders, and other professionals • Failure to appropriately account for the social and environmental costs of conventional electrical generation

11. VC’s actions to boost SWH through municipalities • Legislation requiring solar water heating in city of São Paulo based on the Barcelona experience (under discussion) • Replication of the São Paulo experience to other municipalities through Solar Cities program (task for 2006) • Business plan for an ESCO SWH based (currently under development and supported by REEEP) • CDM project development for SWH activities led by ESCOs (currently under development in partnership with GMI and supported by BMF)

12. VC’s actions to boost SWH in low income housing SWH use in existing low income housing projects (action coordinated with CAIXA and DaSol ABRAVA) • SWH up-front additional cost: US$ 200 • Impact on mortgage payments: US$ 5 / month • Impact on family’s electric bill: (-) US$ 8 / month • CERs can make a difference for large housing projects

13. Thank you! Mark Lutes lutes@vitaecivilis.org.br Rubens Harry Born rborn@vitaecivilis.org.br VC Energy & Climate Program Délcio Rodrigues delciorodrigues@uol.com.br