São Paulo – The starting steps have been taken to make São Carlos, in the interior of São Paulo, into a global reference for research on the development and use of clean, sustainable and renewable energy. It is the beginning of the Energy City project, to establish a hub turned to the activity in an area of 2,600 hectares, to include, apart from centres for education and laboratories, services like a convention centre and the Energy museum.
Starting the works, the Ministry of Tourism has made available, this week, 19.7 million reals (US$ 10.9 million) for the initiative, to be used for duplication of seven kilometres of the Guilherme Scatena Highway, which provides access to the site where the centre should be built. The São Carlos City Hall made available another 1.7 million reals (US$ 940,000). In all, the project should receive investment of 50 million reals (US$ 27.7 million) from the Federal Government, 10 million reals (US$ 5.5 million) from the City Hall, 25 million reals (US$ 13.8 million) from the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq) and 3 million reals (US$ 1.7 million reals) from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).
The forecast is for this initial phase, of investment on the road, to take six months. “We are going to strengthen the talent that São Carlos already has, for being a centre of excellence in research and a city that attracts many business tourism events,” said Tourism minister Luiz Barretto. “That is not to mention that sustainability and the search for alternative energy is the great theme of the 21st century,” he explained. Apart from the Ministry of Tourism, the project includes the ministries of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Industry and Foreign Trade.
“We are going to build the Epcot Center of renewable energy in São Carlos”, guaranteed the executive director of the Energy City, Antônio Cláudio Lot, referring to the most famous science and technology theme park in the world, installed in Orlando, in the United States.
Interested in the initiative, Lot explained that the Energy City should bring together at the same space all research and models of renewable energy existing in the world today. “Investors from abroad may visit the hub and lean all that is being developed in São Carlos, the Brazilian technology capital,” he said. “Here, they may learn about energy sources with zero carbon impact, like solar and wind energy, among others,” he said. “Soon we may obtain alcohol not just from sugarcane, but from other plants found in national biodiversity, like elephant grass and eucalyptus, for example,” he explained.
The executive director of the Energy City said that the “theatre for demonstration of the use of renewable energy” to be established in São Carlos will be managed in partnership between the local City Hall, Abimaq and Embrapa. “The idea is for 50% of the management to be public and 50% private,” he said.
Land of doctors
São Carlos was chosen for the project as top end universities are located there, with centres of excellence in research, as is the case with the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR). With a population of 230,000 people, the city has the highest proportion of doctorate holders in Brazil: one of every 200 inhabitants.
That is not to mention the companies installed in the city, like Electrolux, TAM, Volkswagen, Faber Castell, Opto Eletrônica (of optical equipment) and SAP (software). “In the area of technology companies in the health sector alone, there are 70 companies,” said the Government secretary of São Carlos, João Carlos Pedrazzani.
Pedrazzani explains that the city was established in 1857 and has always had an industrial talent. “In the beginning, coffee and textile production were the bases of the local economy,” explained the Government secretary.
*Translated by Mark Ament
