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The Roraima Renewable Energy Forum launched a publication that analyzes the risks and uncertainties in the construction of the Bem Querer Hydroelectric Plant, highlighting the diagnosis that the project would be one of the least efficient in the country. 

The book, available in e-book format, also points out other alternatives for Roraima's energy future, based on more diversified and smaller enterprises, using local potential and adopting the business model used in the 1st energy auction in Roraima, carried out in 2021.

In 2007, the Energy Research Company began inventory studies of the Rio Branco Basin. Published in 2011, the document was approved in the same year by the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) and in the following year, technical feasibility studies began.

The main concerns raised by society during the various events held by the Energy Forum were brought together in the book. See some of them:

• - Large flooded area, affecting forests, urban and rural areas, farms and indigenous lands;
  - High hydrological risk with low or no energy generation during the dry period.
  - Rising water table, with consequent increase in flooding during floods, especially in Boa Vista;
  - Economic losses in the flooded area, impacting agriculture, roads, tourism, fishing, leisure, etc.;
  - Loss of the Bem and Querer rapids and 130 km of beaches on the Branco River.
  - High emission of methane gas from the plant's reservoir.
  - Worsening health, safety, education, cost of living and other indicators, mainly in Caracaraí;
  - Blocking the Branco River for the passage of fish and boats;
• - Retention of sediments in the reservoir, reducing nutrients and altering the quality of the water downstream;
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• According to Ciro Campos, one of the coordinators of the Energy Forum, the study shows that the hydroelectric plant would be more important for Manaus than for Roraima. The project foresees that the line would be used to transmit part of the energy generated to Manaus. 

“There is a lack of energy in Manaus and recently they even purchased 700 million gas-fired thermal plants. Bem Querer would be important to send energy to Manaus and balance the tension of the Linhão that is arriving, during the Rio Branco flood”, says the researcher from the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

“Our state would have to live with irreversible and large-scale impacts, in exchange for a quantity of energy that could be obtained in other ways, generating fewer impacts and more jobs in Roraima”, he adds.

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The project would form a lake 130 km long and 519 km² in area with a dam built under the Rio Branco, the largest river in Roraima. Both the size and location of the project cause unrest in local society, 

According to the study, the idea of ​​the Bem Querer Hydroelectric Plant began to be materialized in 2007 and, despite the changes made throughout the process, such as the reduction in power from 708 to 650 MW, the risks and uncertainties of the project remain, such as the risks related the size of the flood and the elevation of the water table. 

There is also uncertainty regarding the plant's generation capacity during the dry period. The minimum power of the plant during the peak of the drought is not reported but, due to its operating characteristics, it is possible that production will be low or zero at this time. 

According to Rosilene Maia, member of the collegiate coordination, “the effort to analyze the energy issue from different perspectives has always been the method adopted by the Forum, and there is consensus among us that the UHE Bem Querer project does not appear to be sustainable, although it is deals with energy production from renewable sources, a central theme of our proposals”.

The publication is carried out by the Roraima Renewable Energy Forum, which brings together various sectors and organizations of local society, including the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). The event took place in the auditorium of the Instituto Euvaldo Lodi (IEL) in Boa Vista.