Brazil’s Largest Rooftop Solar Plant on the Melicidade

Enel Soluções, a company of the Enel Group, has installed Brazil’s largest rooftop solar power plant on top of the new headquarters of Mercado Livre, a leading company in e-commerce in Latin America and active in 19 countries around the world.

The Melicidade, as the company is also known, is a facility inspired by the Californian campuses in Silicon Valley. Located in Osasco, a municipality in Sao Paulo State, the site has 1,800 solar panels, which have made it possible to cut the company’s energy consumption by approximately 20%, with a total capacity of 0.5 MWp and an estimated 700 MWh of electricity generated a year. In addition to the economic savings, the rooftop solar plant, which measures 7000 m2, reduces the site’s CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by 100 tonnes a year, the equivalent of planting 560 trees.

A Self-Sufficient System that Emits Surplus Energy onto the Grid

The renewable plant built by Enel Soluções generates energy credits for the company, in accordance with resolution no. 482 of the Brazilian agency for the regulation of the electricity market (Aneel). The solar energy produced is immediately consumed by Mercado Livre, which thus benefits from direct and immediate savings, while any surplus generated is directed to the power grid, earning the company energy credits to be used within 5 years.

Green Practices, a Balance of Innovation and Sustainability

The construction of the new Mercado Livre headquarters took 12 months and the various phases involved approximately 600 professionals to optimise the site’s natural resources in order to ensure sustainable development.

The Melicidade hosts 2,000 employees and represents an excellent example of corporate sustainability, with shared workspaces to facilitate direct contact between employees, large windows allowing natural light into the offices and 100% automated LED lighting to reduce energy consumption by up to 75%.

The rooftop solar technology project created by Enel Soluções for Mercado Livre is a perfect balance between technological innovation and sustainable energy, a model of good green practices to promote and replicate on a global scale.