Regarding the territory and the population figures, Brazil is the fifth biggest country in the world. Moreover, considering its economy Brazil is categorized as an emerging nation, which is why it is even more surprising that the country is able to cover over 40 percent of its entire energy demand with renewable energies. By comparison, Germany’s share in renewable energy is only 12 percent - and this despite the energy transition and a bigger awareness for climate protection in the German population. It could be assumed that, hence, Germany can learn from Brazil regarding a more intensified use of renewable energies. However, the opposite is true.

In 2008 Germany and Brazil signed a treaty regarding the collaboration in the energy sector with a focus on renewable energies and energy efficiency. This treaty is designed to contribute to a more intense use of renewable energies in order to reach a safer and more sustainable energy supply. The cooperation seems promising: Brazil’s utilization of renewable energies is high, but it still has a lot of potential to develop. At the same time Germany offers a lot of technological and political expertise in this field. With the Brazilian support Germany can contribute more effectively to the control of climate change than an operation based on only the national level would permit, since Brazil offers a lot of wind and solar energy through its better geographical conditions.

The high potential of wind, solar and biomass in Brazil are not yet sufficiently exploited because the country is mainly focusing on power generation through hydro energy. According to Felix Dane, director of the Regional Program Climate Change, Environment and Energy Security in Latin America of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, Brazil´s energy production through hydro energy has two main disadvantages. First of all, most of the production takes place in the south, and after finishing the new hydro-electric power plant in Belo Monte, also in the north of the country. However, most energy is consumed in industrialized states such as Sâo Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, which requires long energy lines. Secondly, the production with surface water is very prone to disfunction, because the water reserves cannot be used for power generation during the increasingly dry summers.

Brazil needs a diversification and decentralization of the energy system. “Energy should be produced locally, especially in the regions where many villages are not yet connected to the electrical grid”, says Dane. In order to foster this change, different German actors, among them, the KAS, the foreign chamber (AHK) and the society for international cooperation (GIZ) work on projects regarding the facilitation of renewable energies.

The GIZ, for example, supports the Brazilian Energy Planning Agency (EPE) organizing and structuring procedures of open competitive bidding and auction in the field of wind energy. The KAS fosters increasingly dialogue processes, in which environmental secretaries are trained in application for Brazilian project funds. Those activities are payed by German taxes. Jürgen Biegel, director of GIZ´s Brazilian energy program, however, says that like this the taxes can be used ten times more effectively for saving of greenhouse gases due to Brazil´s potential of energy generation. The annual insolation in Germany, for example, is between 900 to 1220 kWh/m2 and in Brazil between 1500 to 2400 kWh/m2. The Brazilian cities with the lowest insolation are still higher than the German maximum value, which increases the economic feasibility of investments in the field of solar energy in Brazil tremendously.

The German support is gladly received in Brazil, affirm Dane as well as Beigel. Although in Brazil the demand and potential exist and the government advocates the climate objectives on the international arena, domestically the facilitation of renewable energies is not implemented consistently. This is one of the Brazilian criticisms, which were remarked in the manifestations last June. It does not matter whether the Brazilian government dedicates itself to this topic more actively or not, a part of the German energy transition is already taking place in Brazil.

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