Recently, a representative of the Technical Support Unit (TSU) of the Mitigation Action Facility (MAF), Mónica Silva González paid a visit to our Brazil Industrial Energy Efficency project, to strengthen our internal MAF collaboration between the TSU and projects. An advisor at the TSU, Mónica has extensive experience in advising projects in the industry sector and has been working closely with the project throughout its implementation. She visited the project from 10-14 February.
The project, entitled “Transformative Investments for Energy Efficiency in Industries in Brazil (PotencializEE)”, has been operating in the state of São Paulo since 2020. The project has been effectively improving access to energy efficiency (EE) measures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the state, mitigating emissions in this key sector.
The current Brazilian government recently defined seven missions for the neo-industrialising agenda, with “industrial decarbonisation, energy transition and bioeconomy” being one of them. This mission includes prioritising energy efficiency investments, consequently R$ 106.16 billion (around EUR 20 billion) was announced for industries as a stimulus package of the National Growth Acceleration Initiative (Novo PAC), mostly for concessional credit lines. PotencializEE’s expansion at the national level is cited here as part of Novo PAC. The Mitigation Action Facility Board approved additional EUR 6m to finance the technical support for SMEs in five additional states, investing in thermal EE technologies which, while potentially more complex, could have a higher impact. You can read more about this impressive milestone here.
Mónica’s visit to the project came at a time in which the project was consolidating its learnings of the experience in São Paulo, to optimise their activities and up-scale them to the new states. The visit also served as a valuable opportunity to learn from the project first-hand. By paying the project a visit, we can better understand their current challenges and how the TSU can best support the project to tackle and overcome obstacles. These valuable insights will be shared within our portfolio, for our network of projects to learn from PotencializEE’s success and bring these insights to their own operations.
During her visit, Mónica met with key stakeholders from some of the beneficiaries of the project. One such beneficiary was Pro Metal, a metallurgic industry company based in Limeira, in the state of São Paulo. Thanks to the support of PotencializEE, this SME is optimising their compressed air-system and burners to reduce the energy consumption of their production processes. During her visit to the company’s site, Mónica was able to see the transformational impact that access to such measures can have on the emissions produced by an SME in the metallurgic industry sector.
Another beneficiary that Mónica visited during her time in São Paolo was the company Sintequimica, based in the city of Caieiras. This company operates in the chemical industry and, thanks to the identification of EE measures by the PotencializEE energy audit, they invested and implemented a set of EE solutions with their own resources. These EE solutions ranged from low-hanging fruit, like a change to efficient lighting, to more impactful measures, such as thermic insulation and refrigeration system investments. The thermic insulation helped to solve leakages of compressed air and the investment in a refrigeration system accelerated the transition to using a highly efficient chiller. The visit proved insightful and shed light onto the variety of processes that such energy efficiency measures can positively impact.
During Mónica’s visit, she attended the lessons-learned workshop that took place at the facilities of the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) in Indaiatuba. SENAI is a key partner of the project, providing training to the energy auditors who assess SMEs. The trainers help to identify the potential energy savings that can be achieved through various technologies of high impact. The workshop revolved around the lessons learned in 2024 and the implications for the strategy in 2025. By gaining these insights, the project optimised its procedures and ongoing support measures to provide more targeted high-impactful energy efficiency advice and support to SMEs.
Mónica had the opportunity to meet the main partners of the project: São Paulo State Government’s Ministry for Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics (SEMIL) and the financial institution, Desenvolve SP – São Paulo Development Agency. Through the regulatory framework, SEMIL enabled the establishment of the São Paulo State Guarantee Fund for Energy Efficiency Development (FAEE). This guarantee fund has been crucial in facilitating the accomplishments of PotencializEE, by effectively supporting the investments made by SMEs by reducing collateral requirements. Desenvolve SP has been working with PotencializEE to implement the financial components of the project. The organisation provides loans to SMEs for investments in energy efficiency measures and manages the FAEE guarantee fund.
Though the provision of loans and the implementation of the guarantee fund, PotencializEE has facilitated access to financing for SMEs across São Paulo. In 2024, the project mobilised EUR 5m in private finance and EUR 5m in public finance for low carbon investments through Desenvolve SP’s loans in energy efficiency projects.
We’d like to extend our gratitude to the PotencializEE team, which is implemented by GIZ, for sharing their day-to-day business with us. Their passionate work in creating an enabling eco-system for energy efficiency measures is the first step for the decarbonisation of the industry sector in São Paulo. Their achievements have set an example for other Brazilian states to follow and we look forward to seeing how these methods are implemented elsewhere in the country in 2025 and beyond.