Fernando de Noronha

Fernando de Noronha, a natural sanctuary 

The volcanic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha is located off the northeast coast of Brazil, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only inhabited island in the group and the largest, with an area of approximately 17 km². It is an ecological sanctuary recognised by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage Site in 2001.

Due to its nutrient-rich waters, the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha is a location of great importance for the feeding and reproduction of tuna, sharks, sea turtles and different marine mammals. These Brazilian Atlantic islands are also home to the largest concentration of tropical seabirds in the Western Atlantic.

In the midst of this rich and delicate ecosystem, the group's Brazilian subsidiary carries out various R&D and energy efficiency projects, all of which are completely in line with Iberdrola's Sustainable Management Policy and commitment to a sustainable energy business model.

This commitment to sustainability has made the company a benchmark on indexes such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, FTSE4Good and the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index. In addition, and in line with its activity, the group focuses its efforts on Sustainable Development Goal 13: climate action.

 Indexes of sustainability

Photovoltaic plants used to increase sustainability 

Up to 10% of the energy consumed on the archipelago comes from the Noronha I and Noronha II solar power plants:

• Noronha I opened in July 2017 with a total of 1,644 photovoltaic panels. It is located on land that belongs to the Air Force and covers an area of approximately 5,000 m², this renewable installation has an installed capacity of 400 kW and generates around 600 MWh/year.
• Noronha II, for its part, was inaugurated in 2018 in the State of Pernambuco. Its 1,836 polycrystalline silicon modules were installed on an 8,000 m² concrete apron built in 1958 to collect rainwater. The system that converts solar radiation into electrical energy has an installed capacity of 550 kW and generates about 800 MWh/year.

In addition to beautiful and sustainable, smart

Fernando de Noronha has been chosen by Neoenergia for the installation of smart grid infrastructure with operations in the areas of measurement, telecommunications, information technology and automation.

Thanks to the Pernambuco energy company — CELPE —, the buildings and the distribution network on the island have modern equipment and the installation of 816 bidirectional energy meters allows the collection of an enormous amount of data for subsequent study, analysis and evaluation. In practice, this smart grid (REI) allows customers greater control of their energy consumption and, through remote access to the system, it allows Neoenergia to identify and resolve any incidents that occur in the operational processes on the archipelago.

From an environmental point of view, this smart grid project stimulates the use of distributed microgeneration and contributes to the diversification of the energy matrix on the archipelago.

With electric mobility 

In order to reduce the emission of polluting gases on the archipelago, CELPE has acquired an electric car that is charged at an eco-station with photovoltaic panels. This vehicle alone will prevent the emission of 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.