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Pitch

We provide access to renewable energy without being necessary to install solar panels, for our club members everything is online and easy.


Description

Summary

Brazil has a huge potential for solar energy production, based on the measurement of the solar irradiation, or insolation, Brazil only loses to Australia in the world, but even so, Brazil presents a series of complications in the legislation and tax system in this sector, making this sector develop very slowly.  ClubeWatt will redefine the way that we consume and pay for green energy, becoming into something more accessible and uncomplicated.  

ClubeWatt is responsible for all the technical part and implantation of the photovoltaic farms in places of good solar incidence. When people join ClubWatt, they can rent energy production areas, which entitles them to access the energy production of these places. We send this energy to the local distributor and it is through it that energy arrives in their houses or businesses. As well as in app's such as Uber or Netflix, our customer will have the access to a clean, renewable and cheaper energy, without the necessity to own energy generator equipments. Through this system it will be possible to democratize and make solar energy more popular in Brazil and in a brief future for more countries. 

Our business model is ideal for Commercial and Small Industrial Buildings to achieve an energy supply in a sustainable way and avoiding greenhouse gases emissions. Starting from the point that no generator installation is necessary in the company itself if it does not have a good solar incidence or adequate space for solar panels, after all the solar plant is managed externally and the clean energy is delivered through the distributor that already performs this service.

Teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK_Td-GAJ_g&feature=youtu.be


Is this proposal for a practice or a project?

Not sure


What actions do you propose?

Brazil’s strict laws and uncompetitive prices of solar technology products are the major factor holding Brazil back from alternative energy sources. On Nov. 24, 2015, ANEEL issued Resolution No. 687, which amends and modifies a previously enacted resolution, setting out two components that allow us to create this Renewable Energy Club:

  • Introduces the concept of shared/community solar, allowing several energy customers to share the benefits of a solar power generating facility as one single consumer (Art. 2, section VII).
  • Allows participating consumers to distribute net-metering credits among multiple electric service accounts, for instance, on a multi-tenant commercial property or a residential apartment building (Art. 2, section VI).

According to this new resolution we started our actions:

- We are building our first Solar Power Plant at PUC-RS University in the south of Brazil and another in Ceará - northwest area of our country. This solar power plants are built  by our partner company, that creates the hardware, a solar module already adapted for the Brazilian electrical system, composing in a single product (plug and play) the protection systems and inverter in order to facilitate the installation and scalability of the product. 

- A software is under development that will control all consumer micro-generation, storage and energy expenditure.(https://wattpanel.com/)

- A digital platform (mobile app's - website) is almost done - that will manage subscriptions and club partners to access our energy production, paying monthly an accessible fee. The kw/h price in ClubeWatt program starts costing 20% less than the regional distributor price. Each year a progressive discount will be apply, until it completes 100% and our club members will zero their energy cost and be paying just for the city taxes. We expect that very quickly many people will be changing their way to consume energy from fossil to solar, wind, biogas or others.

- A Reward Program will give points to each kw/h consumed in our platform, this way will be possible for club members to exchange points for products. Products that could be new home appliances that have with lower energy consumption. sThis way we can improve the entire cycle from: production, delivery to the energy consumption.

- Tons of carbon credits will be generated from the micro generation parks and they will be donated for social programs and institutions and 5% of the energy generated will be donated to some charity institution  in the region where the photovoltaic park is installed. (www.socialwatt.org)

- First Brazil then we are going global!

 


Who will take these actions?

We are working as a startup incubated within a technology company. This company has its own subsistence projects and this stability provides the environment and technology, marketing, software development professionals we need to develop this project.

Also will be very important our early adopters that are involved, such as PUC-RS Universityhttp://www.pucrs.br/enand Faculdade do Vale do Jaguaribe. 

EMBRAPII – the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Research and Innovation is a Social Organization connected to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Comunications (MCTIC) and to the Ministry of Education (MEC) is an investment in progress.


Where will these actions be taken?

We'll start in Porto Alegre, capital city in the south of Brazil, than we'll scale up to the rest of the country this year. But we expect that ClubeWatt will be open for all brazilians, personal or companies very soon. 


In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.

Brazil


Country 2

Portugal


Country 3

No country selected


Country 4

No country selected


Country 5

No country selected


Impact/Benefits


What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?

Brazilian energy matrix has strong hydroelectric power, with less water in the hydroelectric reservoirs, the energy production per combustion of fossil fuels more than doubled from January to August in 2017 - from 5,900 to 12,600 gigawatts / hour (GWh) in eight months, accumulating 67,500 Gwh in this period. Between 2015 and 2016, there was a 27% decrease due to the economic crisis, going from 139,000 GWh to 101,500 GWh. 

Hydraulic plants represented 93% of Brazil's energy generation in 1990, but today they produce only about 62% of the total. In the same period, thermal generation grew from 4% to 23%, accompanied by the growth of demand. According to experts, in the early 1990s the reservoirs had enough water to light up Brazil for five years. Today, the stock is equivalent to only five months of consumption. In 2016, energy production by natural gas combustion, oil and coal generated around 42 million tons of CO2 or equivalent. For each GWh generated, it was around 49 tons, according to a survey by the Climate Observatory.

Our proposal is to provide energy from renewable and clean sources, this way we will reduce emissions (mitigation). ClubeWatt has a business model that will be possible to scale through the country very fast and also make this subject more popular, so more people can understand and invest in their own energy production as well.


What are other key benefits?

- Costumers will save money because it's a cheaper and renewable energy.

- Brazil's goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are 37% by 2025 and 43% by 2030. The announcement was made during the United Nations Conference on the Post 2015 Development Agenda in New York. Our proposal directly helps to fulfill this goal.

- ClubeWatt project is not just about using an abundant natural resource, it is also about collaborating with the local community to help create a long-lasting solution.

- We are dedicated to the promotion and democratilization of access to renewable energy


Costs/Challenges


What are the proposal’s projected costs?

We depend on the local power distribution system in each region of Brazil and there are several different distribution companies. This is a factor that makes the expansion of our project take longer in some regions of the country.


Timeline


About the author(s)

Daniel Seleme Dora, CEO and founder of ClubeWatt. Specialist in technology solutions and business development, Master in Business Development from Universidade do Vale dos Sinos (BR) and Université de Poitiers (FR), he has been working in the research and development market for more than 15 years, as mentor in Start- ups and serial entrepreneur. Actively involved in the third sector, Daniel is the executor and mentor of several social projects, among them, Laudelina, finalist project in the Social Impact of Google 2016 and PLP2.0, winner project of several prizes like Google Social Impact 2014 and Tela Viva Mobile 2016 prize. As a social entrepreneur, challenges are daily faced, although, making technological advances to reach excluded population groups is the biggest challenge. It's a hard work to make companies and financiers perceive minorities, environmental causes and low-income communities as a growth possibility.

Caroline Mallmann Scossi, Product Manager of ClubeWatt. Heavily involved in developing and deploying the proposal. 

 


Related Proposals


References

http://sustentabilidade.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,producao-de-energia-eletrica-no-brasil-polui-cada-vez-mais,70002021234

http://seeg.eco.br/panorama-energia/

https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/02/new-developments-in-brazil-s-solar-power-sector.html