Alternativas de financiamento de projetos de biogás e geração de energia elétrica em aterros sanitários: estudo de caso

The objective of the present essay is to analyze how to make feasible the financing of projects for the collection of biogas and the generation of electric power in sanitary landfills, inserted into the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto’s Protocol. The exploratory research assesses the current stage of the solid residues in Brazil, the means for the financing of sanitation undertakings and the credit limits for the public and private entrepreneurs. It identifies how the credit restrictions to the public sector impair investments, either due to the inability of assuming debts or even due to the lack of payment capacity. The case studies analyzed reveal that the carbon credit is a mechanism that contributes to the feasibility of the process for the transformation of biogas into electric power. The results from the economic and financial analysis of such cases reveal that the electric power generation and trading activity in sanitary landfills is economically not feasible; however, when associated to the revenue from the sale of certified emission reductions (CERs), in the carbon credit market, the undertaking becomes feasible, presenting a positive net present value (NPV), with a capital cost of 15.00% p.a, and provides an internal rate of return (IRR) of 36.19% p.a. It further shows that the electric power generation activity produces a deficit, but its income has a paramount importance in the financial engineering of the structured operations similarly to the project finance, in a society of specific purposes (SSP), since the receivables, originated from the energy sale contracts, compose the operation’s set of guarantees. Such modeling is a proposal of the present dissertation as a feasible alternative for the financing of projects which may provide the ingress of US$700 million in the solid residues sector until 2012 and also positively contribute to the reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the amount of 70 million t of CO2e. In the same line, the assessment of the financial impact from the tax reduction appears as an alternative that may positively contribute to the entrepreneurs’ decision making, causing the projects to be materialized, since the fiscal waiver makes investments more attractive to the sponsors of resources that compose the funds to make projects feasible.