The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the economic viability of distributed photovoltaic systems in Brazil

Abstract

Electricity consumption in Brazil increases significantly, making feasibility studies to diversify the Brazilian electricity mix with other renewable sources become essential. However, the electricity market continues to be primarily driven by government or regulatory incentives and economic status. With the coronavirus pandemic since the beginning of 2020, the market has been undergoing significant changes that cause uncertainty in consumer investments in grid‐connected photovoltaic systems. This article presents an economic feasibility analysis of photovoltaic system installation for the Brazilian residential sector, estimating a cash and term investment and comparing the viability of the investment before the global pandemic (December 2019) with the pandemic scenario (April 2021) for each of the 27 Brazilian capitals. The baseline scenario for economic feasibility analysis calculations considered a power system of 4 kW. The results show that the effects of the pandemic in the electricity market were positive in the feasibility of investing in grid‐connected photovoltaic systems. Also, financing the system increases the chances of profitability. The current scenario is possibly the most attractive ever experienced by potential investors. However, this favorable scenario could decline in the coming years due to climatic and governmental factors.

Spatio‐temporal availability of renewable energy sources for Western Paraná

“…40,41 When activated, thermoelectric plants make production more expensive with yellow and red flags on the energy bill, with different values, depending on the proportionality of the energy demand to be supplied and the fuel used. 7,42 In line with global trends and the availability of alternative,…”

“…Despite the benefit of controlling supply more accurately, the disadvantage is the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and generation costs resulting from the use of the technology, including the cost of fuel 40,41 . When activated, thermoelectric plants make production more expensive with yellow and red flags on the energy bill, with different values, depending on the proportionality of the energy demand to be supplied and the fuel used 7,42 . In line with global trends and the availability of alternative, renewable sources with lower operating costs, Brazil is redirecting incentives toward photovoltaic and wind power generation in its territory 43 …”

Impacto da COVID-19 nas PMEs no Brasil e drivers de percepção gerencial: um novo modelo neural baseado em funções de utilidade ponderadas pela entropia

“…Com relação aos impactos da COVID-19 nas PMEs no contexto brasileiro, alguns estudos exploraram a questão em empresas operando em diferentes setores (Bretas & Alon, 2020;Dweck, 2020;Pereira & Patel, 2022;Rediske et al, 2022;Reis et al, 2021) como comércio e serviços (Marques et al, 2021) e instituições de ensino (A. D. S. M. Costa et al, 2020;B. G. S. Costa et al, 2022;Dias & Ramos, 2022).…”

“…A maior parte da literatura sobre COVID-19 e PMEs revela uma compreensão de como as empresas responderam ou foram impactadas pelos efeitos da pandemia (Bretas & Alon, 2020;A. D. S. M. Costa et al, 2020;Dejardin et al, 2023;Dweck, 2020;Habachi & Haddad, 2021;Kamaldeep, 2021;Ma et al, 2021;Pereira & Patel, 2022;Rediske et al, 2022;Reis et al, 2021). Essas pesquisas tendem a descrever a dinâmica da pandemia e seus efeitos nas PMEs tendo por base, majoritariamente, estudos descritivos.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on SMEs in Brazil and managerial perception drivers: a novel neural model based on entropy-weighted utility functions

“…Besides, Brazil had 8,863 exporting SMEs in 2017, which represented 40.8% of the country's exporting companies in the year, with 17.8% referring to micro-enterprises and 23.1% to small businesses (Serviço de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas Brasileiras [SEBRAE], 2022). Some studies evaluating the impacts of COVID-19 for SMEs were carried out for the Brazilian context (Bretas & Alon, 2020;Dweck, 2020;Pereira & Patel, 2022;Rediske et al, 2022;Reis et al, 2021), that operate in different sectors; with a focus on commerce and services (Marques et al, 2021), on educational institutions (A. D. S. M. Costa et al, 2020;B. G. S. Costa et al, 2022;Dias & Ramos, 2022), on the strategies used (Wecker et al, 2020).…”