All over the world, the main discussion is to find sustainable and renewable energy source and make the transition to a low-carbon economy. Brazil is blessed by sunlight. Ceara State, in Northeast region, receives the sunlight for almost 2.500 hours every year. So, why not invest in solar panel technology in Brazil? As I have said in a previous article, green tech could be the solution for financial/economics crisis.

This piece, published in a site about housing has significant data about this matter: If half of Sao Paulo city starts to use solar panels, it would bring a lot of benefits: first, it would save US$ 5 billion/year.Second point is CO2 emissions: 300 thousand tons of the gas would not be emitted. Just for comparison - we would need 432 million square meters of forest to make the same compensation of CO2. Finally, this change would create 30 thousand jobs. CO2 emissions due to Electric Centrals in Brazil are increasing: it represent 8% of country emission - as double the 4% verified in 1990. Bellow, the complete data:

*Gigagrams

Just to clarify my point, there are more impressive data about solar energy potential in Brazil: some studies show that a million part of solar energy that is absorbed by Brazil represent 54% of national oil production, or 2 times the energy obtained from coal or four times the energy is generated on a hydroelectric station. Brazil produces only 20 megawatts from solar sources while obtains 14000 megawatts from hydroelectrics.

Two months ago, I defended the same point at Th!nk About community blog "Media must help citizens to make better choices and debate or proppose new ways of produce and consumption, in face of climate changes. It would be productive a discussion about solar energy". For those interested, this piece (on US-based site EnergyCollective) shows five tips to use solar energy in a cheap way.

But one question remains: why solar energy still is so expensive? Panels represents 50% of costs. Other half is instalation costs, licenses and taxes. In other words, there is an extra-tech component avoiding the growth of solar panels market. However, we have some good news. Panels costs have fallen in US: from US$ 10 per watt to US$ 7,5, despite all difficulties.

It seems that Brazilian scenario on this sector will be the same of the United States. Nowadays, the solar energy prices are 8,5 times the prices of hydroelectric energy (US$ 333 x US$ 40, by megawatt/hour). But, in 2013, Ceara State will have the same prices for both energy sources, according to this piece.

The basis for the study, made by Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) is Germany model of solar energy adoption. In this model, all costs of implementation are shared by all energy final consumers. In Brazilian simmulation made by UFSC researchers, low-income consumers were not included in the models. Results showed that by 2013, solar energy will have accessible prices in Brazil.