Solar and motorcycle energy are bets to get away from expensive light and fuel

Feeling the constant rise in fuel prices in his pocket, Marcello Ghigonetto, 38, decided to leave his car in the garage and bought a scooter. “I’ve always liked motorcycles and had taken a license just for leisure. But high gasoline ended up making the motorcycle the first choice.”

With the exchange, weekly expenses to fill the tank dropped from R$ 250 to R$ 32. The route that the public relations man has to take between his home and office, in São Paulo, went from 1:15 am to 25 minutes.

“Today, I wonder how I lost so much time and money riding in a car. I can think about my life in a much simpler way now”, says he, who works for a motorcycle saleswoman, but only opted for the means of transport with the onset of the pandemic.

Ghigonetto’s case is not an isolated one. Scooter sales grew 44% in the first 11 months of 2021, as part of a movement of Brazilians looking for alternatives to reduce fuel and energy expenses, given the record prices caused by the high dollar and the drought.

While low-income families have to resort to riskier solutions, such as cooking with firewood or alcohol, consumers with more favorable financial conditions invest in cheaper solutions, such as motorcycles, natural gas for vehicles or the use of solar energy.

The growth in demand for motorcycles should make the sector close the year with the highest production volume since 2015, says Marcos Fermanian, president of Abraciclo (Brazilian Association of Manufacturers of Motorcycles, Mopeds, Scooters, Bicycles and Similar).

In October, annual production surpassed the 1 million units mark. Until November, it was 1.1 million, 26% above the same period in 2019, also driven by the growth of digital commerce. Even so, the high demand today generates a waiting list for new motorcycles that lasts for a month.

“With the increase in fuel prices, the motorcycle has become the best alternative for a large part of the Brazilian population with lower income”, says Fermanian. “Looking at the motorcycle from the moment of purchase, going through the maintenance cost and fuel consumption, there are many advantages.”

In mid-October, the price of gasoline reached the highest value since the ANP (National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels) started publishing a survey on the subject, in 2002. Its main competitor, ethanol, also soared.

Thus, many Brazilians who need a car to work decided to migrate to CNG, which is also at record levels, but is cheaper and yields more. Between January and November, the number of installations of kits for using the fuel grew 66%, according to Firjan (Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro).

“Vehicular natural gas has become an alternative for drivers”, says the entity, which calculates that, for every real spent on CNG, the driver runs twice as much compared to gasoline and ethanol.

Driver Lenaildo de Souza Dias, who works in São Paulo, decided to evaluate the fuel change of his vehicle to reduce expenses.

Meanwhile, by installing the kit, he changed his work routine, using more apps to avoid going back alone after dropping off a passenger, and began prioritizing local apps to escape the high fees charged by more traditional alternatives.

In your case, it’s Four Taxi, from Fetacesp (Federation of Taxi Drivers of the State of São Paulo) — but there are similar tools in other big cities, like Taxi.Rio, in Rio de Janeiro, or Let’s, for application drivers of Niterói (RJ). “We end up managing as we can,” says Dias.

To avoid high energy bills, consumers are turning to solar water heating or power generation systems. In the first case, sales grew 26% between January and November, says Abrasol (Brazilian Association of Thermal Solar Energy).

“More than in 2001, when the blackout began to appear, this year there was a boom in the purchase of solar water heaters”, says the organization’s president, Oscar Mattos, noting that the electric shower is a great villain in energy consumption in residences.

He says that the system with a medium-sized collector and reservoir, to serve a family, currently costs around R$6,000, an investment that pays for itself in two years with savings on the electricity bill. “It’s very fast compared to other alternatives.”

Solar power generation for homes has also soared, especially after the emergence of a business model that shares electricity generated by solar farms among multiple customers, even if they are far away from the panels.

In 2021 alone, according to Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency), nearly 29 thousand residential units adhered to this model. The vast majority, however, still prefer to install the panels in the consumer unit: there were 195 thousand connections of this type in 2021, compared to 138,000 in the previous year.

Commercial manager Vanessa Calvano, 35, is one of them. The increase in the electricity bill made the family invest R$ 45 thousand in photovoltaic panels, used, above all, to allow the use of air conditioning practically all day.

“We got a 24-month loan from the bank and we already felt the difference in the electricity bill in the first month. With six residents, our house used to spend R$ 400 — in a few months, the bill reached R$ 700. Now, we pay the minimum fee of R$200”, says the carioca.

She says that the price research was essential when choosing the installation company, and the price difference between brands reached R$ 20 thousand. Vanessa calculates that the investment in the plates should pay for itself in two and a half years.

“The system also comes with an application that records consumption data and helps us plan better how to use the devices at home. Now, neighbors stop by to ask about plates and say they want to do the same.”