Fábio Rosa

Rosa left STA in 2001 to expand his work with a non-profit he established called the Instituto Para O Desenvolvimento De Energias Alternativas E Da Auto Sustentabilidade (IDEAAS). IDEAAS was designed to take the basic STA framework and apply it as a nonprofit model in lower income areas.

In 1992, Rosa established Sistemas de Tecnologia Agroelectro (STA) to popularize solar energy. He recognized that the critical barrier to the adoption of solar energy was its high cost. Thus, he worked to make it attractive by pairing it with electric fencing, which could help address Brazil's problems with overgrazing. Within several years STA had installed 700 solar powered fencing systems and Rosa "had gained national recognition as a leader in the delivery of low-cost solar energy".

In 1989, Rosa was named a fellow by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and using the organization's stipend, he continued his efforts to expand rural electrification. In 1990, along with colleague Ricardo de Souza Mello, Rosa began work on Pro Luz (Project Light) to expand the Palmares model throughout Brazil. The program proved successful and the Brazilian government was receptive, even offering a dedicated line of credit for rural electrification programs. However, in 1992, Brazilian economic troubles led the government to reduce social spending on these types of projects. The repeated difficulties Rosa faced working through government led him to focus future efforts through private organizations.

Using this system, Rosa instituted a successful pilot project that took place between 1984 and 1988. In 1988, a new mayor of Palmares was elected, who ended the program.

Rosa attended the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, where he graduated with a degree in agronomic engineering. In 1982, after leaving school, Rosa was invited by a classmate to visit the Palmares do Sul area of the southern Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Sul. Unbeknownst to Rosa at the time, his colleague's father, Ney Azevedo, was the current mayor of Palmares and in speaking with Rosa during this visit, Azevedo was so impressed that he offered him the position of secretary of agriculture.

Fábio Luiz de Oliveira Rosa (Porto Alegre, 1960) is a Brazilian social entrepreneur whose initiatives have focused on rural electrification and the use of renewable energy sources.