Distributed Solar Energy in Brazil:Fabio Rosa’s Approach to Social Entrepreneurship: UNC Kenan-Flagler

Fabio Rosa has a long history of delivering electricity to low-income Brazilians.  An agronomist by trade, Rosa has been developing electrical distribution solutions for over twenty years.[1]  In 1983, as the secretary of agriculture for Palmares do Sul, a rural community in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Rosa began to recognize the importance of electricity for the residents of rural communities, when he surveyed the local people of Palmares about what they wanted.  Electricity was at the top of their list, even higher than better working conditions.  Armed with this basic request, Rosa began to investigate how electricity could be brought to this rural community.[2]  What he found was that under the existing system, it cost approximately US$ 7,000 to bring electricity to one rural household.[3]  One of Rosa’s early successes has been the development of low-cost rural electrification models that improve the quality of life for the rural poor and slow urban migration.