Energy efficiency will need to deliver at least 35% of the cumulative CO2 savings required by 2050 to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement according to the International Energy Agency. At the same time, industrial manufacturing processes currently account for around 29% of global CO2 emissions. Energy efficiency is therefore a must for climate-friendly industries and can help countries and regions to maintain well-paid jobs. This is the global context of the project Transformative Investments for Industrial Energy Efficiency in Brazil (“PotencializEE” in Portuguese), which envisages to support 1,000 small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector throughout the state of São Paulo to unlock energy and emission savings potentials.
Brazil’s industries contribute to 40% of the country’s electricity consumption and 32% of final energy use. Industries deploy energy for different purposes (e.g. heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, etc.) and with numerous technologies, such as motors, compressors, boilers, burners, pumps, chillers, dryers, among many others. Every manufacturing process has its specific characteristics. Enabling energy savings and investments in innovative technologies like heat recovery systems requires robust data and cooperation among many experts within the local ecosystem, especially energy auditors, SME operations managers, technology suppliers and loan officers at financial institutions. PotencializEE thus developed jointly with its partner institutions a digital and interactive platform for industrial energy efficiency as monitoring & evaluation (M&E) tool.
The platform provides multiple functionalities, displaying and structuring the results of energy audits and energy efficiency measures in a harmonised way, promoting standardisation and better coordination. It also helps to keep track of the programme’s overall implementation. A calculator embedded in the platform will determine benchmarks (reference values) for energy consumption levels in each manufacturing segment and contribute to assessing potential public policies for decarbonisation and improved competitiveness levels. So far, the platform connects more than 850 industrial SMEs with around 70 energy auditors mobilised by the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Vocational Education (SENAI), 40 technology suppliers for the implementation of energy efficiency measures and São Paulo’s promotional bank Desenvolve SP. At end of the support programme, it is planned to transfer the system to partner institutions.
Visit the project’s official website [available in Portuguese] to learn more about it.