Development of a PV System as a Way to Promote the Technology

There is not a government strategy to promote photovoltaic applications in Brazil and an action of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) was to support the development of an industrial silicon solar cell process and the fabrication of twenty PV modules in a pilot scale, using the infrastructure of the NT-Solar/PUCRS. In order to spread the developed technology, a demonstrative grid connected PV system was installed in the facade of the Science and Technology Museum of the PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil. This interactive museum is one of the main museums of Latin America and more than 1000 people visit it per day, many of them are students of elementary and high school levels. The goal of this paper is to present an action of the MME and NT-Solar/PUCRS to promote PV technology and the analysis of the grid connected system. PV system was built with 20 PV modules totalizing 680 W-p. PV modules were fabricated with silicon solar cells developed and processed by the team of NT-Solar/PUCRS. PV system produced an average monthly electric energy of 39.5 kWh. The annual performance ratio was 85.6% and the annual yield of 700 kWh/kW(p) was obtained. The measured average monthly energy was 20 % below the simulated value due to low solar irradiation in the south of the Brazil in 2011. On a sunny day in summer, the temperature of the modules was of 41 degrees C, only 11 degrees C above the ambient temperature. But in winter the difference between temperatures was of 25 degrees C, due to a higher solar irradiation. The highest measured daily average temperature of the modules was of 40 degrees C and occurs near the equinoxes.