Ethanol production in Brazil started in the early 1930s due to laws created by the Brazilian government. However, ethanol production only increased significantly with the National Program of Ethanol implementation in 1975. This program was another action taken by the Brazilian government aiming to provide conditions for the development of the ethanol industry in the country. With the program, it was possible to achieve significant progress; however, it finished in the mid-1980s. Currently, ethanol is produced on a large scale by more than 300 sugarcane mills all over the country. In 2016, the Brazilian government provided another incentive for ethanol production by creating the RenovaBio Program, which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Besides the environmental aspect, Brazil’s ethanol industry needs to develop to supply future biofuel demand. According to the forecast provided in this paper, and considering technical, economic, and environmental aspects regarding the Brazilian ethanol industry, the current and only feedstock used is likely to be insufficient. Thus, the ethanol produced from corn would be an attractive secondary feedstock to complement sugarcane ethanol as the primary feedstock.

The Solar Photovoltaic Distributed Generation (PVDG) has proven to be an essential strategy for achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda, especially SDG 7 and SDG 11. However, we note that most projects involving this technology are restricted to the most favored society classes, not yet reaching the low-income population, which contradicts the theories of energy justice. Thus, the objective of this study is to assess the economic feasibility of a policy of replacing the social electricity tariff (the current policy aimed to subsidize electricity tariff for low-income population in Brazil) by PVDG projects. In this sense, a specific methodology was developed, carrying out an analysis in the Brazilian context based on the proposal to replace the Social Electricity Tariff (TSEE) by PVDG, providing this way an alternative exit strategy to the subsidy scheme for low-income households.