According to the expectations of the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydropower is expected to remain the world’s largest source of renewable energy. The reason? It is simple: when it comes to renewables, hydroelectricity is one of the most mature technologies globally. It is a reliable, versatile, and low-cost generation source that is helping the world to overcome the problems arising from global warming, accelerating the transition of the world energy matrix, and helping humanity to decarbonize the planet. This aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all." It is in this context Central Elétrica Anhanguera S.A. (CELAN) was born, a private company responsible for the development, construction, and operation of the Anhanguera Small Hydropower Plant (SHP). The Anhanguera SHP was created with the purpose of promoting the utilization of hydrologic energy resources of the Sapucaí River to provide clean energy to the Brazilian National Electricity Grid. This is directly connected to SDG 15, which focuses on “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.”, and SDG13: "taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”.
The project is classified as a run-of-the-river hydropower plant and is located between the cities of São Joaquim da Barra and Guará, in São Paulo. Run-of-the-river plants are projects with small or no reservoir capacity, features that drastically reduce the environmental impacts of hydraulic projects, thus promoting sustainable infrastructure and supporting SDG 9: “building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation."
The design, with three horizontal Kaplan turbines capable of receiving a water flow up to 50m³/s, makes the enterprise extremely efficient, even during water crises. This reflects the principle of SDG 6, which is to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all," balancing carefully water resource utilization and energy production.
It is noteworthy that CELAN maintains the environmental squad that designed the entire reforestation process and that, to this day, monitors the forest under restoration, even though this is no longer a requirement of government agencies. With this team, we encouraged several actions both in the reservoir and in the forest restoration of 177 hectares with native species.
The work of analyzing the behavior of the floristic structure and the community in terms of resilience, considering demographic data, turnover, recruitment, growth of forest species, mortality, species biology, and biomass production, will complete 17 years in 2025. The data collected on that was so innovative that it resulted in the publication of the article Waterline distance effects in the recovery of forest structure and soil organic matter 12 years after restoration in the Dutch journal Ecological Engineering, one of the most renowned in the field.
Evidence of this size and longevity is already providing unprecedented insights into the long-term functioning of reforested forests and their response to occasional disturbances, contributing again SDG 15.
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Bank transfer payment for this project is possible from USD 60.00
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