Replacing diesel with biogas in decentralized electricity generation systems: a feasibility assessment from workers’ perspective with a modified Human Development Index (HDI) approach

Despite Brazil's high electricity universalization rates, around 1 million Amazon inhabitants need access to this service. An environmentally sustainable way of solving the problem is using biogas from agricultural residues as fuel for electricity cogeneration. This study explores the social effects of this solution, aiming to support more sustainable development for the Brazilian Amazon based on the conscious use of resources and the active involvement of the local population. We compare the social performance of diesel electricity generation (the current scenario) with that of biogas-operated systems for three locations in the Amazon: Aveiro, Porto de Moz, and Prainha. To this end, the following steps were carried out: (i) characterize the analysis scenarios, (ii) determine the personnel associated with each project, (iii) estimate normalized social performance indices considering aspects such as health, education, and income, for the calculation of the Workers' Human Development Index (W-HDI) in different situations, and (iv) analyze the results and formulate a recommendation. The disparities between W-HDI values for the renewable and non-renewable scenarios were less than 10%, even though a slightly better effect concerning diesel systems was observed for Aveiro and Prainha. Conversely, a local biogas energy generation system can generate up to 6 times more wages and 5.5 times more jobs, exhibiting a great potential to reduce social inequalities in these traditionally poor regions. The W-HDI proved a valuable metric for measuring social impacts for a sector devoid of data like the one analyzed herein.