The Brazilian Portal of Energy Efficiency Indicators (PBIEE), called MonitorEE, has just been officially launched, which brings together information on energy efficiency programs and projects being implemented, in progress and already completed in Brazil. The ceremony took place this Tuesday morning, in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FEM), with the presence of the dean Marcelo Knobel and authorities involved with the topic. The project was financed by the Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) and executed by the NGO International Energy Initiative (IEI Brasil) in partnership with Mitsidi Projetos (technical manager of the portal), Federal University of Itajubá (Unifei), Federal University of Santa Catarina ( UFSC) and Unicamp.
The project began to be built in 2018, with the proposal to offer information at a single address for monitoring and progress on energy efficiency programs in Brazil, based on a database, indicators and analyzes on the issue. The target audience is the consumer, energy utilities, industry and government agencies. “It is a very pioneering initiative in energy efficiency and the idea is that we have instruments to monitor the progress and investments that Brazil has made in this area for a long time”, says Gilberto De Martino Jannuzzi, professor at FEM and coordinator of the portal.
For rector Marcelo Knobel, the initiative is important for promoting Unicamp's connection with society and different institutions around an essential issue for the country. “We need to make better use of the resources we have and act to obtain clean energy that does not produce consequences in terms of climate change and other negative effects, such as pollution in its production. On the other hand, we have to take advantage of the environment generated by this project in universities, government and third sectors. The portal is a product intended for society to show transparency, results and spread knowledge.”
Samira de Sousa Carmo, general coordinator of Energy Efficiency at the Ministry of Mines and Energy and graduated from Unicamp, considers MonitorEE to be a great collaboration for her sector. “The ministry needs a lot of collaboration to organize, understand all the initiatives and try to coordinate actions to avoid duplication of efforts; and also to know the results and make planning without unnecessary investments in new plants and other assets. During the debates, I will show some slides about the volume of investments planned by the government – and it is a lot.”
Gilberto Jannuzzi had ideas like the Energy Efficiency Portal for many years, following decades of pioneering and interesting initiatives in Brazil. “In an international comparison, we are pioneers on several fronts. We have several mechanisms and major investments in this area, but we are unable to put them in the energy balance, where solar energy already appears, but energy efficiency, not a trace. There is this invisible aspect, which we need to make more visible. It is often easier to open a photovoltaic plant than an initiative that brings energy savings.”
According to Jannuzzi, an ambition within the project is to show the impact that energy efficiency has on the country's economy, considering that a rich country is one that knows how to use energy in the most productive way possible. “We are losing this fight, our energy intensity is going in the opposite direction to what happens in several countries. Another ambition is to demonstrate energy efficiency as a resource: it is as important as our potential in solar energy and hydroelectricity and, as such, needs planning, investment and performance monitoring. We don't just want to report policies, this is not a diagnosis. What we want is to know if it’s working through objective evidence.”
