3. Distributed Rural Electrification in Brazil

At the time of this research approximately 8 million people were without electricity in Brazil. This included roughly 1.2% of urban households in 2002, but the bulk lived in rural regions, particularly in the Amazon region and the Northeast (up to 60% of rural households in some regions with a national average of 27% of rural households without electricity in 2002) (ESMAP 2005). A more recent estimate shows over 4 million still do not have electricity access (IEA 2009). It is difficult to see how Brazil, can accomplish its goals of universal service without resorting to some form of decentralized electricity production. At the same time, distributed solutions face a number of institutional barriers that have either precluded their implementation or created conditions unfavorable to their success, even when they may be the best solution from a purely technical perspective.