The “My House My Life” program, which is slated to finance one million low-income housing units in Brazil in a bid to reactivate the economy and create jobs, will also promote the use of environmentally friendly materials and technologies, including solar energy. The Environment Ministry signed an agreement Jun. 2 with the federal housing bank so that poor families will receive homes that have solar water heaters already installed, allowing savings of 150 dollars yearly, in addition to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases associated with energy production.

The initiative is focused on the population in Brazil's south, southeast and central west, where the instant heat electric shower is most widely used — a big energy consumer, especially at night, the housing bank's press secretary told Tierramérica.