Elsevier, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, (49), p. 278-290
DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.04.075
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From 1999 to 2013, in a 14 years' period of time, rural electrification programs brought access to electricity to 16 million rural inhabitants in Brazil. Approximately 155,000 rural households remain without access to electricity in the Amazon Region, conforming very isolated communities that cannot be supplied by the expansion of the existing grid. To supply electricity to these communities, off-grid generation through diesel fuel has traditionally been the only option considered. The Amazon Region has a huge potential in renewable energy, specially: hydraulic, biomass and biofuels, solar as well as wind in the coast. The Brazilian Government has started to consider the use of these local renewable sources for the electrification of isolated communities. Several experimental projects have been deployed, supplying electrical power through appropriated off-grid renewable energy technologies: run-of-the-river and hydrokynetic, biomass (direct burning or gasification), biofuels and vegetable oils, and hybrid (solar–wind–diesel). Regarding these technologies, the most significant projects conducted in the region were evaluated. Analyzing the costs, technical and social issues as well as the performance of these systems, after a 10 year's evaluation period, this paper shows that some renewable energy technologies have proven to be a more convenient and economic option than electricity generation through diesel, in these isolated communities. &