<
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/>
"When Brazil approved the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex
on the Xingu River, in Pará state, the megaproject promised to profoundly
change the national and local energy landscapes, creating a large offer of
clean energy to power industries, illuminate homes and bring development to
isolated communities that historically had little to no access to power.
However, nearly a decade after the operations of the fourth-largest hydropower
facility in the world began in 2016, the reality is starkly different.
Vulnerable communities that highly depended on fishing have been severely
economically affected, and many riverside families remain disconnected from the
grid or pay some of the highest electricity bills in the country.
A study published in 2024 by researchers from the State University of Campinas
in Brazil and Michigan State University in the U.S., funded by the São Paulo
Research Foundation (FAPESP), identified in a household survey covering 500
families in Altamira, Pará, that a vast majority of these families (86.8%)
suffered a negative impact on electricity prices after the construction of Belo
Monte. The research shows that not only did the “energy progress” promised in
the past never materialize, but also that tariffs soared while communities
living in the shadow of the Amazon’s largest dam still face blackouts and
prohibitive costs.
Lower-income families in small communities in the Amazon region were hit the
hardest, not only paying more for electricity, but also relying on diesel
generators to cover outages, adding fuel costs to their burden.
“People are right under the transmission line, but the energy doesn’t come from
that hydroelectric plant. … That energy goes to São Paulo and Rio, it goes
straight there, it never passes through the Amazonian communities,” Emilio
Moran, a prolific social anthropologist from Michigan State University who led
the research, told
Mongabay.
Moran, who has dedicated more than three decades of his career to researching
environmental and social issues in the Brazilian Amazon, including the impact
of large infrastructure projects, said that cheaper, more sustainable energy
was “one of the big promises [of the Belo Monte project], which is why people
said ‘yes, we want it,’” but that after almost 10 years of activity, that
promise is still unfulfilled."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
