Avaliação de alternativas tecnológicas e locacionais em estudos de impacto ambiental de linhas de transmissão: um panorama do licenciamento federal brasileiro

Abstract

The distribution of electricity in Brazil heavily relies on transmission lines (TLs). However, TL projects can cause significant environmental impacts, especially regarding the length of their route and the technology adopted. Thus, the study of alternatives plays a crucial role in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for these projects, enabling a comparative analysis of different options. This process assists environmental agencies in making decisions aimed at minimizing environmental impacts. However, when the study of alternatives is not developed, or is developed in a biased or limited manner in the Environmental Impact Studies (EIS), the quality of environmental decisions is compromised. In this context, the objective of this work is to evaluate the locational and technological alternative studies presented in TL EIS within Environmental Licensing (EL) processes under federal jurisdiction in Brazil. Fifty-seven TL EIS were evaluated, all under the responsibility of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama). The efforts included collecting data by selecting TL EIS, identifying, extracting, analyzing, and organizing information from the chapter specifically addressing the study of alternatives. Additionally, a set of 21 legal and best practice indicators for EIA was applied for the analysis and evaluation of these studies. Through this characterization, a scenario of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the alternative studies was identified using the SWOT Matrix. The results indicated that most TL EIS do not adequately address Technological Alternatives (TAs) and the Zero Alternative – do nothing (A0), which may compromise the effectiveness of the EIA. When present, TAs lack clear criteria for analysis, comparison, and selection, while A0 needs to be considered in the analysis. In contrast, Locational Alternative (LAs) studies showed greater efforts in their development, including criteria associated with route options as well as compliance with legal indicators and partial achievement of best practice indicators. Thus, this research contributes to informing the current scenario of specific alternatives for TLs, and based on the SWOT matrix, it can highlight points to be improved.