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- Title
Hydro, thermal and photovoltaic power plants: A comparison between electric power generation, environmental impacts and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the Brazilian scenario.
- Authors
Mariano, Juliana D' Angela; Santos, Francielle Rocha; Brito, Gabriel Wolanski; Junior, Jair Urbanetz; Junior, Eloy Fassi Casagrande
- Abstract
The challenge of sustainability is present in electricity generation. The sources should be renewable, and production should respect the environment and all forms of life. Being the main energy sources in Brazil, hydroelectric and thermal power plants have drawbacks when considering environmental impacts. In contrast, the use of photovoltaic energy is a sustainable alternative, pollution-free in its operating phase and with significantly less impact in its construction phase. The purpose of this article is to make a relation between the electricity generated by the hydroelectric Itaipu plant, the thermoelectric complex Jorge Lacerda, the Eletronuclear plant, and the analysis of a photovoltaic plant proposal for these three scenarios. The relation between the production of electricity in Itaipu, Jorge Lacerda, and Eletronuclear power plants, and the projected energy production of a photovoltaic plant for each scenario was obtained through calculations according to the area of each plant, generating a comparison between the installed power of the referred plants, and the estimated installed capacity for the projected photovoltaic plant. The environmental impacts were assessed for the different scenarios, and CO2 emissions were quantified. The calculated results show that the installed power of the projected photovoltaic plant was significantly higher than the installed power of the existing plants. The photovoltaic plant's capacity factor, for the proposed study, was of 15%, and the projected annual photovoltaic energy for the respective areas presented significantly higher values, of approximately 330,180.40 TWh in comparison to Itaipu plant, while in comparison to Jorge Lacerda plant, for instance, it was of approximately 428,229.23 TWh, whereas to Eletronuclear it was 0.0288 TWh. The results of this study show that photovoltaic plants with equivalent areas of Itaipu and Jorge Lacerda power plants, could generate higher annual energy, nevertheless the same analyses to Eletronuclear power plant showed that the projection would not be viable.
- Subjects
BRAZIL; PHOTOVOLTAIC power systems; SUSTAINABILITY; ELECTRIC power production; RENEWABLE energy industry; HYDROELECTRIC power plants &; the environment; ENVIRONMENTAL impact analysis; THERMOELECTRIC power
- Publication
International Journal of Energy & Environment, 2016, Vol 7, Issue 4, p347
- ISSN
2076-2895
- Publication type
Article