Solar Powered Houseboats in the Amazon Rainforest

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.

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.

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 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.

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.