Energy Justice and Distributed Photovoltaic Power Generation in São Paulo

The chapter presents a discussion that has had little resonance among scholars researching energy justice in Brazil yet. Namely, the implications of well-established debates on justice in the realm of political philosophy for a discussion on energy justice. Here our core argument is that a definitional debate on what theoretical and normative principles and which metrics of justice should orient the debate on energy justice have received very little attention so far. In the second part of the chapter, we analyze energy justice, viz., distributed energy resources (DER) for the city of São Paulo. Our case study analyzes the dispersion of distributed photovoltaic generation units in the territory to understand the spatial limits of their penetration, taking the spatial distribution of DER installation as a proxy for energy justice. The analysis indicates two main results. First, there is a heterogeneous spatial dispersion of DER units, with greater concentration in the city's central, west, central-south, and west regions. In the rest of São Paulo, except for the southern region, they are virtually nonexistent. Second, we found a correlation between social, economic and environmental variables. Further research would likely corroborate the existence of an inverse correlation between energy justice and socioeconomic vulnerabilities according to spatial patterns of social segregation related to access to education, race and standards of living. Finally, with its results, the chapter contributes to the national and international debate on the reach and viability of the SDG7.