HORTOLANDIA, Brazil, Feb 26 (IPS) – Nearly all the things appears new or beneath development within the southern Brazilian metropolis of Hortolandia, from its extensive avenues and cable-stayed bridge to its massive buildings and riverside parks.
Even the town corridor itself, the Palace of Migrants, will have a good time its first anniversary on Might 29, and its predominant car parking zone remains to be beneath development, however already bears the town’s new hallmark: photo voltaic panels on its roofs.
A municipality of 240,000 folks positioned 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 remaining levels of completion, will save 80% of the town corridor’s electrical energy prices, in keeping with Fernanda Candido de Oliveira, director of the Lighting Division of the municipal Public Works Board.
The remaining 20% will likely be lined by the vitality effectivity program, which started earlier and has already changed all previous city lighting with LED lamps. On this means, the town will turn into 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 places, saving roughly 4.5 million reais (US$ 800,000) yearly, which will likely be reinvested in varied sectors of native administration.
Fourteen faculties, 4 well being items and a sports activities stadium have their roofs lined with photo voltaic panels. In complete, 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 heaps, one in all which remains to be beneath development. In complete, it is going to have 1,800 panels.
The plant for the brand new social occasions middle, which is nearing completion, may 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, but it surely 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 have 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 singular case in these improvements,” a reference level, she proudly said.
“Photo voltaic vitality hit the mark, a unprecedented achievement,” mentioned Dirson Pereira da Silva, the receptionist on the Santa Clara Ecological Park, which incorporates a lagoon at its middle.
After 36 years dwelling 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, verify 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 keeping with 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 attributable to 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 smooth mortgage.
“Sustaining inexperienced parks has its prices. We misplaced 30,000 timber as a consequence of lack of care, similar 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, masking 62.4 sq. kilometers.
“Within the Seventies, we have been a rural space that acquired 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 acquired a major enhance 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% remedy. Solely 40% of the streets have been paved; now 99% are, and homicides have dropped to 13 per 100,000 inhabitants, in keeping with information offered 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, at the start of a brand new municipal time period.
Moreover, environmental training is a precedence within the “political-pedagogical undertaking” 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 just too current to evaluate its influence on training, however vitality effectivity has been a everlasting matter in faculties for a few years, together with by means of visits to ecological parks and the Environmental Observatory, a specialised middle positioned in Santa Clara Park.
The truth that 14 faculties have photo voltaic vegetation on their roofs will assist “kids 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. Programs analyst Alessandro Alves displays all the things 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 will likely be no urgent considerations, similar to tools disposal or recycling, for a few years, Queiroz reassured.
Hortolandia’s city grasp plan has an environmental focus, as a consequence 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 accredited, maintains the give attention to 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.
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