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With the switch to solar energy, basic health units will save more than R$ 2 million on the electricity bill
Around 80 Basic Health Units in São Paulo will be supplied by solar energy from 2024 onwards. This initiative arose from a public-private partnership between the City of São Paulo and the Sol da Saúde consortium network. The partnership was signed and signed on December 14, 2021. According to the management of Ricardo Nunes, this partnership will generate savings of R$ 65 million for SP in 25 years. According to calculations made by the city of São Paulo, savings with electricity bills should reach 56%, which will result in a reduction of approximately R$ 2,05 million per year. The Sol da Saúde consortium will receive around BRL 171 a month throughout the contract.
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Solar energy at UBSs
Supplying basic health units with solar energy is the initial phase of the Municipal Clean Energy Program. The next phase, once the bidding is approved, will be the deployment of solar energy in 775 schools in SP.
The third phase will be the construction of a “solar farm” on the Bandeirantes landfill, in the neighborhood of Perus, in the north of SP, where solar energy generation panels will be installed. But in the case of the first phase, it is believed that in two years solar energy will be implemented in the UBSs, as an emergency method of reducing the value of the electricity bill at the health units.
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The first four months of the first phase will only be for preparing the sites. Over the next 20 months, implantation will take place. In 12 months, generating centers will be installed in 27 basic health units, totaling 10.644 photovoltaic solar panels.
Partnership between health consortium and city hall of SP
The Sol da Saúde consortium, which is formed by Quantum from Santa Catarina and the financial consultancy Houer, will install solar energy panels on the roof of basic health units. All the energy captured by the plates is soon transformed into electrical energy to supply the unit. The consortium was also responsible for other negotiations with the energy distributor, which will help with the supply part.
The city of São Paulo placed investment fund quotas as a form of guarantee in the contract with the consortium. According to Alex Novais, new business manager at Quantum, this is an innovative project carried out in Brazil, as it is the first to be structured in the form of a public-private partnership, with a certain public guarantee, in which the private sector has an interest in investing.
According to calculations by the city of São Paulo, only the implementation of the project in the initial phase will prevent 72.594 tons of CO₂ from being released into the atmosphere over 25 years, which is equivalent to the felling of 1.862.795 trees or 483.504.983 km traveled by a vehicle. The number of public bodies that use solar energy is still small, according to Bárbara Rubim, vice-president of the Brazilian Association of Solar Photovoltaic Energy – Absolar, who reported that the public power represents only 1% of what Brazil has in terms of installed power for power generation.
Savings on the electricity bill of basic health units
The partnership between the City of SP and the Sol da Saúde consortium was born at the same time as a bill was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, establishing that consumers responsible for producing and using renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, pay a tariff corresponding to the use of power distribution wires.
According to Novais, even when generating energy remotely, it does not mean that you will not have to pay for the use of the wire. And he completed by saying that this rate will be a little more expensive, but not unfeasible. In any case, basic health units will have a high reduction in electricity bill costs.
