Soccer is the national passion sport that mobilizes crowds, provokes great parties in the stadiums and high energy consumption. The price paid for it is in the great generation of CO2 and the large production of waste, which is why Neoenergia, the first exclusive sponsor of the Brazilian Women's National Team, reinforces the importance of initiatives that seek a sustainable soccer in Brazil and in the world.
In line with the company's pillars and SDG 7 (clean and accessible energy), using renewable sources, encouraging care and prevention with the environment, and promoting economic development and sustainability in the matches, are some of the actions practiced with the objective of reaping positive results in the future.
Electricity is one of the indispensable factors for the practice of sports, due to the lighting of the field, which requires powerful reflectors, the safe traffic of fans on the way, the commercial establishments in the surrounding area, among others. n Maracanã, the main stadium in Brazil, the energy consumption in a month can reach a cost of R$ 1 million. The reflectors are seen as the great responsible for the high consumption, because they need a lot of energy to work and often the most economical equipment is not installed. In this sense, there is an effort for stadiums to change their lighting systems to LED models, which consume less energy.
Besides electricity, soccer also generates a lot of CO2 indirectly, as is the case of the transportation sector, for example. In the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, it was estimated that 2.1 million tons of CO2 were emitted when fans traveled. The construction work in stadiums is also another major indirect CO2 generator, with approximately 573 thousand tons emitted in the construction of the new sports fields in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In a FIFA World Championship in turn, it is possible to emit about 2.75 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, one of the largest emissions among the sporting events celebrated in the world.
In this scenario, the Pituaçu Stadium (BA) was a pioneer in Latin America in adhering to photovoltaic electricity for its own energy supply. Located in Salvador and with a capacity for 32 thousand people, it started to generate energy in 2012, with the Pituaçu Solar project, and, currently, the plant has 2,302 photovoltaic modules, generating about 630 MWH/Year and ensuring electrical self-sufficiency for the stadium. The photovoltaic plant in Pituaçu was the first to use the technology for installations of this size in Brazil and was part of the Energy Efficiency Program of Coelba, Neoenergia's distributor, through the Efficiency Program, regulated by Aneel (National Agency of Electric Energy), in partnership with the government of the State of Bahia.
The stadium also has a modern and efficient model, with projectors of a design more appropriate for application in open stadiums, with precision optics and high technology, besides 112 metallic vapor 2000 WATTS projectors, which offer more luminosity and are more efficient than the 192 projectors previously installed.
With Neoenergia's sponsorship of the women's national soccer team and the Neoenergia Women's Brasileirão, a competition among the national teams, the agreement also foresees the installation of solar panels at Granja Comary, the national teams' training center in Rio de Janeiro.
The strategy is in line with the position adopted by Iberdrola, the company's parent company, which has signed a partnership with the Royal Spanish Football Federation to promote the first sustainable soccer city at the Spanish national teams' training facilities in Las Rozas, Madrid. The sports complex will have a self-consumption system integrated by 110 solar panels, illuminating the teams' games with renewable energy, and will install 20 charging points for electric vehicles, with the aim of encouraging sustainable mobility among athletes and fans.