Brazilian Experience in Solar Water to Low Income House - “My Home my Life” Program
Abstract
Brazil has great potential for solar energy: almost all regions of the country receive more than 2200 hours of insolation per year. Solar water heating (SWH) is technically mature in the country, and the market has grown over the past 5 years at average rates of 20% per year. According to data from ABRAVA (2011), the installed collector area in 2010 was 967,000 m², with an accumulated area of 6.24 million square meters (4038 MWth). Notwithstanding the strong growth during the last few years, market penetration is still low, and the current penetration, 23 kWth / 1000 inhabitants, represents a level approximately 10 times lower than what Austria and Greece had in 2008, IEA(2009).