Wind power farm in northeastern Brazil. Photo: Horacio Selva/Shutterstock
Hydropower makes up roughly 65 percent of Brazil’s energy mix, vastly outweighing renewable sources such as wind power (8.6%), biomass (8.4%), or solar (1%), according to data from national energy research company EPE.
Time and again, Brazil’s “overdependence” on hydroelectric power has come back to bite the country on its rear end, with this scenario repeating itself in this year’s water crisis — the largest in the last 91 years. Abnormally low rainfall levels took hydroelectric reservoir volumes down to dangerously low levels in Brazil’s South and Southeast regions, forcing the government to switch on its highly polluting and expensive thermoelectric power plants, in order to meet the country’s energy demands.
The environmental cost of such a move has yet to be calculated, but the increased use of thermoelectric energy has had a palpable impact on the Brazilian population, with monthly power bills going through the roof.
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