Energy systems for Brazil's Amazon: Could renewable energy improve Indigenous livelihoods and save forest ecosystems?

The choice of energy systems and their design in and around the Amazon biome implicate the future status of all of the following - climate, the ecological systems, and the cultural diversity which Amerindian cultures represent. The study elaborates on a conceptual link between the broadly-agreed upon commitment to conserve the Amazon and renewable energy as a tool helping to achieve it. Relevant policies and regulatory provisions were evaluated against the proposed policy solutions and universal energy access programs. This research context was chosen to expound upon the potential benefits of distributed generation using renewable energy, and to link them to the following objectives - to (i) improve health and prospects for self-determined wellbeing at the community level, (ii) re-think the ecological footprint of local and regional energy infrastructure, and (iii) support climate and sustainability agendas primarily at local and regional levels. The energy system design approach speaks to the market gap that currently exists in the deployment of context-specific, culturally and ecologically-informed distributed-energy systems, with opportunities for local involvement in an independent, decentralized energy generation and management. For energy planners, practitioners and engineers, the study provides a basic ideational framework (principles and contextual aspects) that can be considered in local cross-sectoral planning in culturally and ecologically vulnerable contexts.