PROINFA : uma contribuição para a diversificação da matriz energética no Rio Grande do Sul?

Abstract

Discuss the representativeness of energy in human development is essential to understand how societies organize themselves socially, environmentally and economically depending on the energetic limitations to which they are conditioned. Understand how, nowadays, these relations are given and how they are interconnected, is part of the analysis of this study, which has as a main objective to reflect about the importance of alternative sources of electricity in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, analyzing the contributions originated from these sources for energy matrix in Rio Grande do Sul. For this analysis it was chosen to study a program, carried out by the Brazilian Federal Government and launched in 2002, called Programa de Incentivo às Fontes Alternativas de Energia Elétrica - PROINFA, translated here, for better understanding, as Incentive Program for Alternative Sources of Electric Energy, which has as its goal the inclusion of 3,300 megawatts of installed capacity nationwide. The sources included in the program are the Small Hydro Power Plants (SHP), the Biomass-Powered Thermoelectric Plants, and the Wind Power Plants. In this study the thirteen projects engaged by the program in Rio Grande do Sul were evaluated by verifying their role in the diversification of the energy matrix of the state. Besides, in the construction of this study were addressed questions related to the relationship between energy and development, as well as to the diagnosis of the socioenvironmental impacts arising from the use of renewable and nonrenewable sources, and their contributions to the current environmental situation. In the analysis of the object of study, it was sought to introduce PROINFA, highlighting the conjuncture in which the program was implemented and the legal and regulatory determinants of the contracting environment in which it was inserted. Finally, the characteristics of the projects engaged in Rio Grande do Sul were described in order to understand the impacts in the regions where they were installed. Thereby, it was concluded that PROINFA served as an important mechanism for insertion of alternative sources of electric energy, since this program has encouraged the diversification of the energetic matrix both of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil, incorporating the prospect of a greater participation of renewable sources in the overall context of electric power generation in the country.