Like a biblical scourge
Luiz Cortez states that the energy crisis leads to
the need to plan all essential activities

CARLOS LEMES PEREIRA

The threat of a blackout, which seems to have suddenly begun to hover over us, like a biblical scourge, is in fact a more than natural outcome of the self-boycott that Brazil has historically promoted in the “voltage” of its socio-political organization. This is a good start to analyzing the energy crisis, in the opinion of agricultural engineer Luiz Augusto Barbosa Cortez, coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Center for Strategic Planning (Nipe) at Unicamp. Cortez, who opened the round table Energy crisis: implications and consequences, held by Nipe in partnership with the General Coordination of the University (CGU), is part of the pool of experts from Unicamp engaged in the effort to debate and develop a mix of alternative technologies to the sector. Its main research is on obtaining an energy matrix from sugarcane bagasse through fast pyrolysis (see article on page 17).

“Brazilian society is very poorly organized and the energy issue is just another element of this disorganization”, says the researcher. “During more than twenty years of military rule, it was encouraged not to organize. In fact, this has occurred throughout our history, since our relationship with Portugal. You can feel this gap taking as a parameter two modern nations, the North American and the French, which even at the cost of many struggles, even violence, equated their differences, built a society based on the law and, from then on, enabled their development". And Cortez reflects: “What is development, if not the material result of the organization?”

In the engineer's assessment, this specific crisis signals the need for long-term planning in all essential sectors for the country. “It's not just in relation to the energy problem. Especially because energy is an item that, in isolation, has no meaning; you have it to do something,” he notes.
Cortez considers the tendency to blame the situation exclusively on the federal government to be impoverishing for the discussion, under arguments such as negligence or mistaken policies that stagnated essential investments in the sector: “After stating that the lack of planning is our cultural problem, we only I can consider that the government – ​​the current one or any previous one – is nothing more than a reflection of this. Who is FHC, who were Itamar and Collor? Simply people who represent portions of the population and who, for some reason and at a given moment, reflect the point of view of an important segment and, being placed in a position to decide, pass on responsibilities, establishing a relationship of execution of actions that can or not meeting the country's greatest needs. The energy crisis is just one example of how it was not possible to satisfy the demands of a vital sector in this case”.

Silence and opportunism – The professor, however, does not stop criticizing. “I have been surprised by a certain silence, not only from the Executive Branch, but also from the Legislative Branch, in terms of doing more effective work to raise awareness in the community; guide, more than simply imposing goals. It would be the case for the president, governors, mayors and parliamentarians at all levels to act with greater commitment in technical partnerships with concessionaires. But immediate political interests continue to prevail, be it public image, electoral ambitions, the CPIs,” he notes.

As much as the lack of maturity he identifies in the political sphere bothers him, Cortez emphasizes: “What really worries me, at this moment, is the opportunism of some segments of the private sector, with a view to making a lot of money from the crisis”. And he gives his name: “They are entrepreneurs eager to override environmental and consumer protection legislation to enforce their specific projects.”

As an example of the first case, the researcher recalls the controversial efforts to install the Carioba 2 Thermoelectric Power Plant. “All these projects must be preceded by broad clarification to the population about the positive and, above all, negative consequences. The Campinas macro-region is already extremely suffering from an environmental point of view and they are almost forcing a situation that clouds the tranquility necessary for the correct fulfillment of impact studies”, he criticizes.

Even though moving from the monstrous construction site in Americana to the supermarket shelves, the greed of the smart guys is not letting up, according to the engineer: “Immediately before the crisis, it was possible to find a fluorescent lamp for up to R$ 10,00; Today, the consumer cannot find it for less than R$20,00 and, sometimes, has to pay up to R$25,00”. This would even be the most prosaic “characterization of illicit gain”, for Cortez. “We are faced with overprices on solar collectors and any equipment that could lead to energy savings, proving that, knowing the need and the consequent increase in demand, there are many businesspeople taking advantage”, he denounces.

War in the shower – At this point, the Nipe coordinator is forced to point out another lack of initiative from public authorities: “There are measures that the government could have already started to implement. One of them is exactly the dissemination of the solar collector as an alternative source of energy, which within a few years would reduce to the maximum or, perhaps, practically eliminate the use of electric showers”. To reinforce his argument, Cortez refers to the statement by professor Secundino Soares Filho, from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC), who during the round table stated that the kilowatts “devoured” by each electric shower correspond to up to 9% of all the energy consumed in the country. “Even if there is an initial cost, imagine the benefit when you think about serving 20 million homes”, he suggests.

And he even proposes a way to spread this cost across the consumer market “over a period of four or five years”. It would be enough to follow the path of countries like the United States and Canada, where, according to the expert, as they opt for economic technologies, populations benefit from tax credits. “I’m going to buy a solar collector that, in Brazil, costs R$1,2. But then, the government plays the role of partner, paying 30% to 40% of the final price”. Cortez points out that, as much as the idea is reminiscent of the historic Proálcool, that was an incentive aimed at a segment of the economy. “What I’m advocating is opening up this possibility to society in general.”