ENGIE and Copérdia (Cooperativa de Produção e Consumo Concórdia) have finalized an agreement for the installation of a 2.06 MW capacity photovoltaic plant – the largest unit of its type to supply the agribusiness sector in Santa Catarina. The work is to be undertaken by ENGIE in the Santo Antônio district of Concórdia (SC) and should be completed by September when Copérdia will begin generating energy from a clean and renewable energy source destined for 90% of its consumer units. Thanks to the photovoltaic plant, it is expected that the cooperative’s annual energy bill will be cut by more than R$ 1 million.

The investment of R$ 8.3 million in the system is to be financed by the Banco Regional de Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul (BRDE) with a return estimated in seven and a half years. “This is an important investment which will give an additional boost to agribusiness in the south of the country”, says the president of Engie Geração Solar Distribuída, Rodolfo de Sousa Pinto. “It is yet one more example of the satisfactory partnership between ENGIE, the client, Copérdia, and the financing entity, BRDE, in which all win but principally the environment with the adoption of a clean and renewable energy model” he concludes.

Says Copérdia’s president, Valdemar Bordignon, “the investment in a solar energy plant is justified by the cooperative’s demand for energy and also because we see solar as a clean energy – causing no problems to the environment and is available for harnessing. Certainly, it will trigger other projects for the generation of energy in our region”, he concludes.

The financing agreement with the BRDE is part of its Sustainable Consumption and Production program – BRDE PCS, prioritizing the concession of credit for environmentally responsible initiatives. For the manager of operations at BRDE’s branch in Santa Catarina, Marcone Souza Melo, Copérdia’s pioneering initiative is certainly going to motivate other cooperatives to adopt similar measures. “We believe that all industry in the state could benefit from distributed generation and form the currently available energy efficiency programs. Copérdia is an example of how cooperatives are increasingly more aligned with good environmental practices”, he points out.

Copérdia was founded 51 years ago and has approximately 17 thousand associates in the south of Brazil. It employs more than 1,200 and has sales of over a billion reais annually obtained from operations in different segments such as poultry and hog farming, milk production, buying and selling of cereals, animal feed, seed production and treatment of wood as well as activities in the trading of fuels, agrochemicals and fertilizers, metal fittings, veterinary and supermarket products.