THE POTENTIAL OF BUILDING INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS IN BRAZIL IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW NET METERING LEGISLATION

摘要

The new Brazilian net metering resolution recently enacted by the National Electricity Regulatory Agency – ANEEL allows photovoltaic (PV) systems on buildings with installed capacity of up to 1 MWp to be connected to the public electricity grid with net metering. With the high electricity tariffs paid by end users in this sunny country, building-integrated and building-applied photovoltaics (BIPV and BAPV) are already a cost-competitive energy generation option. Currently there are few samples of BIPV in Brazil thus the aim of this work was to identify why Brazilian architects do not design BIPV and to propose some tools to meet the architects needs regarding the use of this technology. A survey carried out with Brazilian architects showed that they are open to use the PV technology as long as the interference in architectural composition is as small as possible. Furthermore, they are also concerned about optimizing orientation and tilt to maximize electrical output. We have also analysed the solar irradiation profile in all Brazilian state capitals and have observed that, in general, variations in azimuth or slope up to angle 20° did not cause large annual irradiation losses. We have quantified these losses to demonstrate to architects that they have many options to propose architectural composition while attaining high electric generation performance levels.