The role and benefits of residential rooftop photovoltaic prosumers in Brazil

With the declining costs of photovoltaics (PV), a recent and widespread uptake of residential rooftop PV is underway in Brazil and many other sunbelt countries. Electricity consumers produce some or all their energy and become prosumers 1/4 producers thorn consumers. We present a method to evaluate the role and benefits of residential rooftop PV to prosumers and show a case-study using one of the 1250 PV-powered households in the Celesc PV Bonus Project, promoted by the local distribution utility Celesc to demonstrate our method in Florian?opolis-Brazil. The methodology was divided into five principal stages: (i) Solar resource at the site; (ii) PV system performance indicators; (iii) Consumption profiles; (iv) CO2 emissions avoided and; (v) Comparative analysis between the individual PV rooftop case study with the average of PV households in the Florian?opolis region. From the utility's perspective, the annual electricity consumption was reduced by 18% after PV integration. From the prosumer's perspective, the total annual consumption increased by 8%. However, the annual reduction in electrical utility expenses was 54%. The adoption of rooftop PV in residential households in Brazil was demonstrated to be advantageous, and payback times are still on a downward trend due to the continuing price reductions experienced by the PV technology. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Residential rooftop PV adoption in Brazil and other sunbelt countries has seen a widespread increase due to the decreasing costs of PV technology. A case-study conducted in Florianópolis-Brazil evaluated the role and benefits of residential rooftop PV to prosumers. The study found that PV integration led to a reduction in utility's electricity consumption and an increase in prosumer's consumption, while significantly reducing the utility's expenses. The adoption of rooftop PV in Brazil was demonstrated to be advantageous, with decreasing payback times.