Solar Powered Houseboats in the Amazon Rainforest

Solaraio's solution addresses a few challenges that the Amazon Biome communities are facing. Among them: housing deficit, low quality of living, high mortality of infants and high unemployment, limited access or lack of: electric energy, sanitation, health care and education. 

Brazil is the largest country in South America with 216 141 697 current population (2022). The Amazonian population reaches almost 30 million people. Amazonas State is the largest state in Brazil by territory. The population in Amazonas was estimated at 4 207 714 according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The state capital Manaus now has 2 219 580. 

The state of Amazonas has the largest housing deficit in Brazil, according to a survey by FGV. While the national rate is 9.3%, homelessness in the state reaches 25.4%. In the Amazonas, more than 393 995 homes are considered subnormal agglomerations, placing the state in 5th position in Brazil.

HDI 

This habitacional situation is reflected in very low Human Development Index. Most municipalities located in the Brazilian Legal Amazon have a HDI considered low or medium.

The three main problems that Solaraio is looking to solve are:

1. People which preserve region of the greatest on Earth biodiversity are suffering a huge housing deficit, are living in precarious conditions without running water, electricity, sewerage or even toilets and without access to health care, education and far away from urban centers.

2. Communities in the Amazon are mostly living from harvesting forest products and fishing - agroextrativism and today are wasting half of their food production because of the long distance to the merchant, difficulties in storage and disrupted value chain. Their products do not have any added value.

3. Currently used in Amazon Biome fossil fuels engine boats are polluting the environment, making noise well above the healthy limits, they are demanding expensive maintenance and are causing accidents.

Our solution is a self-sufficient, fully solar powered floating home with an electric engine, batteries and roof covered with photovoltaic panels. On board is a compost toilet and grey water treatment. Walls, floor and roof are built from the bamboo and floats are made from bioplastic (HDPE).

Our floating home/ houseboat can travel on electric power that it generates. It can also supply power to other electric vehicles, bioindustry machines and home appliances.

The Amazon Biome spanning 6.7 million km2 (twice the size of India) is virtually unrivaled in scale, complexity and in opportunities. The Amazon basin contains the largest continuous area of tropical rainforests in the world, and it has a crucial role in regulating the Earth’s climate. 

The Amazon is extremely important to ecosystems around the world: it holds around 20% of world fresh water, regulates air quality, stores net carbon emissions, and regulates hydrological and nutrient cycles for the South American continent. The Amazon region is also home to more than 30 million people, including approximately 1.5 million indigenous people – 350 different ethnic groups, more than 60 of which still remain isolated, and more than 5 million people of African descent. Here every day new species of plants and animals are being discovered, with the potential to serve humanity as a food or medicine. 

The Amazon River flows for more than 6 600 km, and with its hundreds of tributaries and streams contains the largest number of freshwater fish species in the world. In the Amazon, 1 km² has an average of 3 km of rivers! Amazon Biome houses at least 10% of the world's known biodiversity.

Our solution is designed to fit the needs of the riverbanks communities living in the Amazon Rainforest. Among them traditional, indigenous and quilombola for generations living and protecting the world's most socio biodiverse place that is crucial for the planet's climate stabilization.

Today this is the region with the lowest HDI in Brazil and one of the lowest in the world, where people in stilt houses made of wood, often live without running water, without toilets or even with no electric energy at home. Here it is common that families live all together - grandparents with their children and grandchildren under one roof, sometimes without inside walls and with a wood stove. To get to the nearest town it can take hours or even days by boat.

Solaraio autonomous houseboat serves as a comfortable shelter and source for clean energy, making it possible for these communities to live with dignity. We are bringing connectivity, digitalization and access to telehealth and education. Secure and reliable sources of energy will improve the conditions for harvest and fish storage which are the main source of income and will result in rising wages. It also brings opportunities for creation of new green jobs in ecotourism and develop the bioeconomy.

Raising the socioeconomic conditions of traditional communities means to match the gap between city and rural populations. It will improve the quality of living for both, increase the quality of food, decrease its waste and lower prices and assure preservation of unique culture.

In result our solution will contribute to sustainable development in the Amazon Rainforest. Good living conditions of its inhabitants will guarantee that well preserved forest continues providing environmental services for the rest of the planet and helps to stabilize climate on Earth.

Our team composed of coordinator Zbigniew Kozak and engineer Sérgio Lamarca is already working on the startup Solalis, which builds solar powered electric boats and electric power stations in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil. With some adjustments we transfer the technology we use in our electric boats and charging stations to use it in floating homes and houseboats.

Zbigniew Kozak was born in Poland in Warsaw. Graduated in physiotherapy. Has been living in New York, Barcelona, Dubai and studyin in Cologne in Germany. Since 2010 he has been living in Brazil where he took the first module of the MBA in Management and Development of Real Estate Projects at the University of the City of São Paulo. He has experience in working with photovoltaic solar energy and in living, working and sailing on boats. Interested in science and innovation. He used to have his own solar energy company in Brazil and was leading a sales team in Europe. Since 2016 he has been frequently visiting traditional communities in the Amazon - indigenous, quilombola, riverbank communities. 

Currently a Volunteer at the Amazon Bioeconomy Hub (by the initiative of Sustainable Amazon Foundation and Green Economy Coalition). Lately participated in the Annual Meeting of the Governors for Climate and Forests Task Force in Manaus. Since 2018 is developing projects with a social and environmental positive impact with focus to improve lives of those who protect the Amazon Rainforest. 

The direct inspiration to start Solaraio project was in March 2021 when he went to the Amazon Estuary to Ilha Marajo in the Pará State and he traveled by boat to the deep interior of Afuá Municipality to visit a family of 12 people - Pedro with his wife, mother and 9 children - a typical family in the region, living without electricity, running water or a bathroom. Great distance and lack of connectivity make it difficult for Pedro´s family to access medical care, schools and commerce. Pedro has lost 2 children when they were infants. Zbigniew already knew the difficult conditions of riverbank families but this picture deeply touched his heart.

He then realized that in a place where waterways are highways, any support for isolated families can only come through water. Inspired, he started to design the electric boat model and strategy that aims to help the people that protect the forest that stabilizes the climate on Our Planet.

Sérgio Lamarca Leite – Mechanical Engineer, post graduated in Production Engineering and Naval/Offshore Engineering. More than 40 years working on several Brazilian and multinational corporations in the shipbuilding industry. He was working for a shipyard and for Brazil's navy for 7 years in Manaus - the capital of Amazonas State and in a few other Amazonian cities like Belem and Boa Vista. He has a deep understanding of local people's needs and the local boat market with all the regional particularities.

He is leading Lamarca Engenharia, which last year won the international award: Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats, for the project of an electric ferry for 300 passengers for the Florianópolis City.

The startup Solalis can develop any electric boat from a kayak to ferry boat and has a goal to promote sustainable development and innovation in the Amazon Region by providing solutions focused on energy efficiency and solar energy: electric boats with photovoltaic systems and biopolymer hulls with forest inputs.

The team members' experience and capacities are being implemented in the Solaraio project to effectively empower traditional communities to better preserve the Amazon Rainforest.

We are looking for partners who can help advance our solutions: Solaraio and Solalis. We already have a financial support to initiate our project. We are now building a team of dedicated and purpose driven individuals.

Please join us in effort to protect the most valuable a asset on Earth - the Amazon Rainforest with it's cultural and biological diversity - result of millions years of evolution. Very special place and crucial in stabilization of climate and for survival of our specie and high quality of living for the next generations.

The solution which Solalis brings to the Amazon communities is a disruptive technology that will have a great positive impact on the biome, because the entire local economy depends on river transport. The economy is based on products extracted from the preserved forest. And the people who most protect the forest are the people who live here and depend on rivers and extractivism.

If one looks into North America, Australia and even Europe, houseboats and floating homes are quite common. And it is surprising that it is not popular yet in the Amazon Rainforest where each 1km² has on average 3 km of rivers. The people here of course live on water but in a very traditional and inconvenient way. Solaraio comes to change it. And this is very good timing now, when the developed world's eyes start looking at the Amazon as a key to lower the Earth's temperatures. The time is also right now, because the technology has lately become accessible and affordable.

Solaraio started a new trend by bringing together the traditional way of living with modern technology. Our goal is to spread this green revolution in the Brazilian Amazon and expand into other 9 Amazon countries followed by the Caribbean and other regions of the world where there are valuable tropical forests and where regions are still very little developed and where nature is well preserved.

Our main measure is the HDI, quantity and quality of the remaining forest within communities where the solution was implemented, measure for biodiversity with the number of endemic species and of course the Happiness Index.

Great video! We believe detailed theory of change is essential and must be done carefully. It is still under development. Forgive please for now, and feel free to request any time later by contacting us. Thank you!

For development of solar powered homes and houseboats we are combining practicality with high efficiency: traditional building materials like bamboo with hulls made out of bioplastic; biological water filters, bacteria based compost toilets and modern technology like electric engines, batteries and photovoltaic panels and just to complement with the satellite internet connection. And finally we bring together the modern design and traditional comfort.

We respect diversity and are believing that we all are part of bigger whole and You are another Me.