Audi and Litro de Luz reach 158 families in Mato Grosso do Sul with lamps and light points that work off the grid.

One hundred and fifty-eight portable lamps and twenty solar-powered street lights have arrived in some of the most isolated communities in the Brazilian PantanalBetween June 4 and 10, 2026, residents, volunteers and employees of Audi do Brasil they assembled and installed 178 photovoltaic lighting systems in Mato Grosso do Sul, reaching 158 families living in areas without a permanent connection to the electricity grid. The intervention was carried out with Liter of Light Brazil and the support of theAudi Environmental Foundation.

The scale of the operation is modest compared to a normal energy infrastructure, but this very scale defines its function. It's not about building an alternative electricity grid, but rather about bringing autonomous, modular and locally repairable lighting where the expansion of conventional infrastructure encounters geographical and logistical obstacles. In the Pantanal, a region characterized by vast distances, waterways, periodically flooded areas, and scattered settlements, even an off-grid light source can alter very concrete daily activities: moving around after dark, illuminating domestic spaces, and making certain shared pathways visible.

The communities indicated by Audi for the 2026 edition are Aldeia Uberaba, Barra do São Lourenço, Amolar, Aterro do Binega, Chané, Bonfim, Paraguai Mirim and Ilha VerdeA previous communication from Audi do Brasil quantifies in 585 residents reachedThe initiative represents the fifth stage of the collaboration launched in 2022 between the automaker, its environmental foundation, and the Brazilian organization. Overall, according to the promoters, the five editions have involved 2.985 people in different parts of Brazil.

A lamp made of PVC, LED, battery and solar panel

The technical core is deliberately simple. The portable lamp developed by Liter of Light It uses a PVC frame, a PET bottle, a battery, LED light sources, and a small photovoltaic panel for charging. Its dimensions are designed to allow residents to move the device and use it both inside and outside their homes. Street lights apply the same solar power principle to installations intended for shared spaces.

The organization also has internal lighting systems consisting of an LED module, solar panel, battery, and control unit. The choice of relatively simple components meets a key constraint for any technology intended for remote areas: Reliability does not only depend on initial performance, but on the possibility of carrying out maintenance after the technicians have leftA sophisticated device that is impossible to repair locally would in fact risk rapidly losing its usefulness.

For this reason, the installation represents only one part of the method. Litro de Luz involves the inhabitants in the assembly and trains some community members as local “ambassadors”, responsible for liaising with the organization and monitoring the devices' operation. In the Pantanal, preparations began before the lamps arrived: the NGO reports that its working group spent three weeks in the field conducting ambassador training and other preliminary activities.

Even the end-of-life of one of the most delicate components, the battery, is included in the operating model. When the battery loses capacity and is no longer usable, it is returned for recycling and Litro de Luz takes care of its replacement. This is an important detail because it distinguishes the simple delivery of a device from a system that attempts to incorporate maintenance, component replacement and waste management in the usage cycle.

The local community gets involved in the maintenance of the infrastructure

The direct involvement of residents introduces a component of social innovation alongside energy. The beneficiaries of the intervention are not considered merely end users: they participate in assembly, learn how the devices work, and assume some of the responsibility for keeping them operational. The model thus seeks to alleviate one of the recurring problems of small infrastructure projects built in hard-to-reach locations: permanent dependence on external technicians and organizations.

The selection of locations was preceded by visits conducted in the first half of 2026. Litro de Luz used its own mapping of communities with no or limited access to the electricity grid and combined this data with discussions with local leaders and teams from Audi do Brasil and the Audi Environmental Foundation. The preliminary phase also serves to determine whether a small-scale, autonomous solution is actually compatible with the local conditions.

The issue remains relevant in a country with a very extensive electricity grid but where access is not yet universal. Audi do Brasil, recalling the 2024 data of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey The IBGE estimates that the number of people still without electricity in Brazil is nearly one million. The problem is therefore residual in percentage terms compared to the national population, but tends to be concentrated precisely in the areas where distance, dispersion of settlements and difficulty of access make it more expensive to complete the coverage.

“The Pantanal, with its rich flora and fauna, remains largely under-infrastructured, making mobile solutions of this kind even more significant,”

said Karine Fernandes, Head of People and Culture of Audi do Brasil,

In the case of the Pantanal, portability is particularly significant. A lamp that integrates photovoltaic generation and storage does not require a permanent connection to the grid and can be moved as needed. The technology does not replace the complete electrification of a home or settlement, but addresses a specific need with a proportionate architecture: produce the energy needed for night-time lighting during the day.

From Rio Negro to distant Brazil, five years of local interventions

The collaboration spanned Brazilian territories with very different characteristics. In 2022, the intervention involved theAmazon, where more than 150 portable streetlights were distributed and 30 solar-powered streetlights were installed, reaching a total of 650 residents. In 2023, the activity moved to the southern coast of the State of São Paulo, Cananéia and Ilha do Cardoso: approximately 40 volunteers participated in the distribution and installation of 140 systems.

In 2024 the program reached the region of Lower Xingu, in Mato Grosso, with 170 units and approximately 700 residents involved. The following year it returned to the Amazon, in the communities of Santa Izabel, São Francisco de Aruaú and Nova Esperança do Apuaú, along the Rio Negro and its tributaries. At that stage, the following were delivered: 199 solar lamps and installations for 177 familiesThe Pantanal thus represents the fifth edition of a traveling model that is adapted from time to time to the geography and selected communities.

Between 2022 and 2026 they took part in the activities 39 volunteers from Audi do Brasil and 95 from Litro de Luz BrasilContinuity also allows us to observe an element that is often difficult to measure in corporate environmental responsibility programs: the ability to transform an episodic sponsorship into a multi-year collaboration with repeatable procedures, accumulated knowledge, and defined operational responsibilities.

“We followed every phase of the initiative, from the selection of the location to the final results”,

said Anton Poll, Managing Director ofAudi Environmental Foundation.

The presence of an industrial financier, an organization specializing in energy access, and local communities creates a relatively clear division of labor. Audi and its foundation support the initiative and mobilize employees and volunteers; Litro de Luz identifies the areas, manages the technology, prepares the intervention, and trains residents; the residents participate in the installation and subsequent maintenance. replicability of the model It depends above all on the maintenance of this chain after delivery.

The real test always comes after the panels have been installed

The simplicity of the equipment does not eliminate open questions. Batteries, LEDs, photovoltaic panels, and electrical connections have a useful life and require regular checks. In locations far from regular technical services, a seemingly minor fault can render a system unusable for a long time. Ambassador training and the battery replacement procedure aim precisely to reduce this risk.

It is also necessary to distinguish between access to lighting and full access to electricityThe 178 units installed in the Pantanal address the primary need and do not provide the continuous availability of energy needed to power household appliances, refrigeration systems, production equipment, or digital services. The value of the project must therefore be measured against its intended function, without assigning small-scale devices the role of a conventional energy grid.

There is also a small discrepancy in the available official documentation. Audi's final international communication indicates eight communities and lists as many, while the page dedicated to the actions of Litro de Luz Brasil talks about nine communities of the Alto Pantanal, adding Ilha do Baguari. Both sources agree on the key figure for the intervention: 178 solutions delivered. In the absence of further clarification, the number of eight communities remains the one used in Audi's final communication.

“Over five years of collaboration with Audi, the project has gained momentum and attracted increasing participation from volunteers,”

said Rodrigo Eidy Uemura, President of Liter of Light Brazil.

The Pantanal thus shows an application of thedistributed energy Very different from large photovoltaic parks. Here, the scale is reduced to a single family or a shared space, and the technological challenge is intertwined with logistics, maintenance, and skill transfer. The panel generates energy, the battery stores it, and the LED transforms it into light; but for the device to continue functioning, someone must know how to monitor it, report a fault, and manage component replacement.

For the 158 families reached in 2026, the immediately verifiable result remains limited but concrete: 158 portable lamps and 20 street lights They have been made available to communities without a permanent power supply. The most significant measure in the medium term will be their continued operation. It is in terms of battery life, local maintenance, component recycling, and the ambassadors' ability to keep the devices operational that a relatively simple technology will have to demonstrate its suitability for the geographical complexity of the Pantanal.

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