MAF project Brazil Industrial Energy Efficiency scales-up its implementation to target five more Brazilian states

The Mitigation Action Facility supports and finances an innovative project in Brazil that aims to transform the industrial energy efficiency market in the country. The project, entitled “PotencializEE”, promotes industrial energy efficiency investments by targeting the whole supply chain for energy efficiency, from local banks to industrial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). PotencializEE is implemented in Brazil by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), who works closely with local ministries to ensure alignment with the domestic context. The project was selected for MAF funding as part of the 5th Call for Projects and has been implementing its activities since 2020.
In late 2024, the project reached a significant milestone by becoming the first MAF project in the Implementation Phase to up-scale. Since 2020, the project has been working hard to address financial, technical and cultural barriers that had been preventing the adoption of energy efficiency measures in the industry sector. The project’s initial scope was in São Paulo state and, following the first few years of implementing the project, changes were already seen in the industry sector within the state.
Now, an eco-system has been created within which SMEs recognise the importance and advantages of energy efficiency measures. Furthermore, the perceived high risk of the financial institutions has decreased, and technicians have improved their knowledge regarding energy audits and more complex energy efficiency solutions related to heating and cooling processes.
Due to the success of the project so far, the Mitigation Action Facility Board approved the expansion of the project’s scope to include financing the technical assistance of five additional Brazilian states. The Brazilian government is now also investing significant amounts of its own funds into the project’s scale-up through its national partner organisations SENAI (technical assistance) and BNDES (financial mechanism).
For the next few years, the PotencializEE project will continue to promote innovative technologies with the highest mitigation impact in the industrial energy efficiency market in São Paulo, but now it will expand its activities to target five more Brazilian states with broadened MAF support and collaboration with the government.
Read more about the project here. Explore the project’s own website here.
Watch the project’s success be featured on CNN in the video below (for translated subtitles click the icon in the bottom right corner):