Technical-economic potential of PV systems on Brazilian rooftops

Raul F.C. Miranda, Alexandre Szklo and Roberto Schaeffer

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 75, issue C, 694-713

Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy is a promising source of electricity generation, but still at a relatively high cost. Nevertheless, distributed photovoltaic generation does not compete for land use, as it is incorporated into existing buildings, and should be analyzed from the standpoint of the final consumer, who perceives electricity prices rather than electricity generation costs. This study evaluates the technical-economic potential for installing PV in the Brazilian residential sector. Socio-economic characteristics, such as household income, electric power consumption, availability of rooftops, load curve, capital cost and financing, were considered. Technical-economic simulation tools were integrated into a geographical information system (‘GIS’) to permit a spatial analysis. Results indicate technological feasibility for urban and rural areas of Brazilian municipalities. In 2014, about 1500 sites would be ready to install photovoltaic panels, and in 2016 this number would reach 68,000 homes. For the year 2026, about 29 million residential units would be prepared to have photovoltaic panels installed. Of these, 3% would be high-income residences, and 52% would be situated in the country's Southeast region. The implementation of this impressive potential will depend also on the development of PV services in the country.

Keywords: Photovoltaic solar energy; Distributed generation; Residential sector; Geographic information system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114006648
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:75:y:2015:i:c:p:694-713

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.10.037

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().