Hortolandia Emerges as an Energy and Environmental City in Brazil — Global Issues

by Mario Osava (hortolandia, brazil)Wednesday, February 26, 2025Inter Press Service

HORTOLANDIA, Brazil, Feb 26 (IPS) – Virtually every part appears new or beneath development within the southern Brazilian metropolis of Hortolandia, from its broad avenues and cable-stayed bridge to its massive buildings and riverside parks.

Even the town corridor itself, the Palace of Migrants, will have fun its first anniversary on Could 29, and its foremost car parking zone continues to be beneath development, however already bears the town’s new hallmark: photo voltaic panels on its roofs.

A municipality of 240,000 folks situated 110 kilometers from São Paulo, Hortolandia seized the chance introduced by cost-effective expertise and authorized incentives to generate its personal electrical energy for public sector consumption.

The 21 photovoltaic vegetation constructed since 2023, some within the ultimate phases of completion, will save 80% of the town corridor’s electrical energy prices, in response to Fernanda Candido de Oliveira, director of the Lighting Division of the municipal Public Works Board.

The remaining 20% might be coated by the vitality effectivity program, which started earlier and has already changed all outdated city lighting with LED lamps. On this manner, the town will turn out to be self-sufficient in electrical energy, limiting bills on this space to distribution community utilization charges and upkeep prices.

Along with the 26,500 public lighting factors, the self-generation system will energy 200 municipal service areas, saving roughly 4.5 million reais (US$ 800,000) yearly, which might be reinvested in numerous sectors of native administration.

Fourteen faculties, 4 well being models and a sports activities stadium have their roofs coated with photo voltaic panels. In whole, 5,000 panels are already producing vitality, and others already put in will quickly start operation.

The town corridor will home three photovoltaic vegetation, one on its roof and two in its parking tons, considered one of which continues to be beneath development. In whole, it’s going to have 1,800 panels.

The plant for the brand new social occasions middle, which is nearing completion, could have 1,568 photo voltaic panels already seen from the cable-stayed bridge, whose two parallel decks of aerial cables are suspended by three horizontal connecting columns, a construction that symbolizes Hortolandia’s modernization.

Economic system and Atmosphere
The first purpose of this system is financial, saving sources for different areas, nevertheless it additionally advantages the inhabitants, Oliveira famous. “The vitality effectivity of LED lamps allowed us to grant a ten% discount in residents’ electrical energy payments,” she defined.

“We had been the ugly duckling of the Campinas metropolitan area,” which incorporates 20 municipalities and a complete of three.5 million inhabitants, however “now we’re a novel case in these improvements,” a reference level, she proudly said.

“Photo voltaic vitality hit the mark, a rare achievement,” mentioned Dirson Pereira da Silva, the receptionist on the Santa Clara Ecological Park, which contains a lagoon at its middle.

After 36 years residing in a metropolis that “buried all its streams,” Araraquara, 170 kilometers away, he returned to his hometown and his ardour for the lagoon in 2023.

The seven parks in Hortolandia, most of them designed to guard watercourses, affirm its environmental vocation, which additionally underpins its dedication to photo voltaic vitality.

The municipality has recognized over 50 springs and strives to preserve or restore them as wanted, in response to Eduardo Marchetti, Secretary of City Planning and Strategic Administration. This requires sustaining or increasing riparian forests.

Hortolandia is a “tree metropolis” acknowledged in 2023 by the worldwide Arbor Day Basis, a nonprofit group primarily based in Washington that seeks to reforest the world.

Timber In opposition to Floods

The town used to undergo from floods brought on by the overflowing of the Jacuba stream, with frequent losses for riverside residents and companies. This was overcome by constructing 4 reservoirs and caring for the springs and riparian forests, recalled Marchetti, who has lived within the municipality since beginning.

Timber are additionally a requirement for financing from worldwide banks. For instance, to construct the cable-stayed bridge, the Growth Financial institution of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) required the planting of 120,000 timber as a situation for its tender mortgage.

“Sustaining inexperienced parks has its prices. We misplaced 30,000 timber because of lack of care, equivalent to eradicating weeds that take their vitamins,” Marchetti famous.

Hortolândia was based in 1991 after separating from Sumaré, a municipality of 280,000 inhabitants. Its territory is small, overlaying 62.4 sq. kilometers.

“Within the Seventies, we had been a rural space that obtained many industries, particularly within the Eighties. This led to a inhabitants explosion, accompanied by excessive violence, reaching 102 murders per 100,000 inhabitants,” recalled Josemil Rodrigues, a journalist who advises Mayor José Nazareno Gomes.

Planning for Transformation
The event of the brand new metropolis obtained a big increase beginning in 2005 beneath Mayor Angelo Perugini, “a visionary” to his supporters.

In 2005, sewage protection was restricted to 2% of wastewater; now it reaches 98%, with 100% therapy. Solely 40% of the streets had been paved; now 99% are, and homicides have dropped to 13 per 100,000 inhabitants, in response to knowledge supplied by the journalist.

“Lengthy-term planning was key. Hortolandia’s vocation is to be a wise and sustainable metropolis,” he said. Photo voltaic vitality is a part of this purpose and has made the town a nationwide reference, Rodrigues emphasised.

The photovoltaic panels are a logical consequence of the environmental imaginative and prescient of the town’s leaders. The present mayor, Gomes, was the Atmosphere Secretary beneath his predecessor, Perugini, who was elected 4 occasions beginning in 2005 and died of COVID-19 in 2021, originally of a brand new municipal time period.

Moreover, environmental schooling is a precedence within the “political-pedagogical mission” of all municipal faculties, noticed Donizete Faria, director of the Division of Pedagogy and Persevering with Schooling on the Schooling Secretariat.

Photo voltaic vitality is simply too current to evaluate its impression on schooling, however vitality effectivity has been a everlasting matter in faculties for a few years, together with by way of visits to ecological parks and the Environmental Observatory, a specialised middle situated in Santa Clara Park.

The truth that 14 faculties have photo voltaic vegetation on their roofs will assist “youngsters take possession of the photovoltaic panels, see them, and have hands-on classes about renewable vitality and consumption,” Faria hopes.

“We wish to develop, but additionally protect. The town should take care of its atmosphere, search new methods to consider vitality, water, and consumption,” he concluded.

The operation and upkeep of the photovoltaic community put in within the metropolis price little. Techniques analyst Alessandro Alves screens every part from his laptop linked to all of the vegetation, and electrical engineer Renan Queiroz intervenes if repairs are wanted.

Because the vegetation have a assured lifespan of 25 years and the inverters final 10 years, there might be no urgent considerations, equivalent to tools disposal or recycling, for a few years, Queiroz reassured.

Hortolandia’s city grasp plan has an environmental focus, because of flooding and the necessity to handle water sources, Marchetti defined. Water reuse, inexperienced roofs, and photo voltaic vitality are a part of the tax incentives for property house owners.

The brand new plan, already authorized, maintains the deal with the atmosphere however provides technological improvements. “We’re a technological metropolis,” with a number of IT and pharmaceutical firms, concluded the Secretary of City Planning.

© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights Reserved. Authentic supply: Inter Press Service

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