Today is Thursday, January 25, 2024.
470th anniversary of the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
It is a metropolitan region where more than 20.7 million people live. In other words, a population larger than 70% of the countries in the world, according to data from the United Nations.
For example, more than Chile, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand and 150+ other countries.
Last week, at the Billings reservoir in the city of São Paulo, the implementation of the Floating Photovoltaic Plant - UFF Araucária began. 10.5 thousand photovoltaic panels on the water surface, installed on high-density polyethylene floats, with capacity to produce up to 10 GWh per year. This is equivalent to the consumption of 4 thousand homes. As a reference, half of the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities have up to 10 thousand inhabitants and the average number of residents per household is 2.79 (2022 Census).
It is worth remembering that not long ago the Desenvolvimento São Paulo Program promoted the 1st. floating solar plant in Latin America installed in an exhausted sand mining pit.
Returning to the UFF Araucária plant at the Billings reservoir, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2025, it will be the largest in the country to operate commercially in the Distributed Generation modality, with generators located close to consumption centers. The plant's production will be deducted from the electricity consumption of the plant's customers, through compensation in electricity bills.
"It's an example that's here to stay", according to governor Tarcísio de Freitas. Click on the image below to learn more and here for several photos at Flickr.
Could it be that, just like the G20 or the G7, which bring together rich countries to address common issues, the largest cities in the world would also have a forum to exchange experiences, especially on issues of sustainability and circular economy?
Tokyo (in Japan), Delhi (in India), Shanghai (in China), Dhaka (in Bangladesh), São Paulo (in Brazil), Mexico City, Cairo (in Egypt), Beijing (in China) and Mumbai (in India), for example.
The point here is that at the end of the day, it would not be the same to serve 900,000 inhabitants in a city in a developed country, compared to these tens of millions of people concentrated in huge metropolitan areas, most of them in developing countries.
What are you thoughts about that? Who knows, there might even be a "G10 Cities", although we've never heard anything about it.
There are certainly experiences and solutions that could help even more people around the world if they were better publicized.
Although we increasingly come across solutions that "enchant", there is no magic in a world with 8 billion inhabitants.
