Solar energy as rural development factor and diary production in Goiás

Abstract

This research aims to understand the challenges for expanding solar energy use in Brazil, mainly in the countryside, specifically in Goiás, in order to promote social, environmental and economic development. Dairy activity in Goiás stands out as an issue to be studied because most family farmers, which compound most of dairy producers, are at the mercy of traditional and non-renewable energy matrices, such as oil and hydroelectric, even though they are in a region with a great capacity for generating photovoltaic energy. Through documentary and bibliographic analyzes, subsidized by indirect data analysis, in a qualitative perspective, this research focuses in understanding public policies for rural development and the obstacles that prevent solar energy, a clean energy matrix, from becoming a main source of energy in the countryside. It deduces that the high costs for implementing photovoltaic systems and the absence of incentives on the government part are obstacles to the autonomy and better living conditions of family farmers in Goiás, especially to those whose main income comes from dairy production. Thus, developing a public policy agenda in order to attend family farmers’ needs and the expansion of Goiás Solar Program may be a way to successfully resolve energy distribution crisis in the state, consequently generating development that expands individual and collective freedoms.

Keywords: Rural development. Clean energy. Energy crisis. Public policies. Dairy production.