Text adapted from Galdino et al. (2010).
SENAI Demonstration Center in Manaus-AM is installed on the mobile river unit used by SENAI for traveling courses along the rivers of the North region. The Boat School Samaúma (Figure 1) travels through the North region offering professional courses mainly to riverine communities of the municipalities of Amazonas, but also serving cities in Pará, Acre and Roraima. The vessel offers several categories of courses, including bakery, mechanics, industrial sewing, carpentry, environmental education and computing, staying about 30 days in each served city (SENAI, 2010).
Figure 1 - Detail of the vessel Samaúma and location of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal system.
The PV system is mounted in a lab located on the second deck of the vessel, and the photovoltaic panel is installed on the roof, in a mobile structure, allowing manual inclination and orientation adjustment in accordance with the conditions of the city where the boat is anchored in order to optimize energy conversion.
The solar thermal system is of the compact type, also mounted on the roof of the vessel in a mobile structure that allows adjustments in order to heat the water and maintain the operation of the thermosyphon, regardless of where the boat is anchored. The hot water consumption is very small because the system is only intended for demonstration and will have no effective use.
Anticipated loads are lighting, fridge, HF radio transceiver and computer connected to the Internet (if the cell phone network in the city allows). The system also has a synoptic table showing the magnitudes of interest (pictured in Figure 2) and also the use of a pyranometer for measuring the instantaneous solar radiation.
Figure 2 - Map of Photovoltaic Panel and synoptic table aboard Samaúma.
The configurations of the systems on Samaúma are provided in Table 1.
Table 1 - Characteristics of the systems on Samaúma | Electrical system | Sun radiation | 4.00 kWh/m2.day |
|---|
| Daily consumption | 1.2 kWh/day |
| System voltage | 24 Vcc |
| Photovoltaic Panel | 780 Wp (2s * 3p * 130 Wp) |
| Battery Bank | 12.24 kWh (2s * 3p * 170 Ah @C20) |
| Solar water heating | Cold water box | 100 L |
|---|
| Thermal reservoir | 75 L |
| Solar thermal collector | 1 m2 |
In addition to onshore demonstrations, Samaúma also carries 3 mobile kits: PV for water pumping, photovoltaic energy conversion and photovoltaic system for radio transceiver.
The amount of solar radiation adopted in Table 1 refers to the lowest monthly average rate in the Amazon region, according to Atlas Solarimétrico do Brasil (UFPE, 2000).
All students served by Samaúma receive information about the solar systems installed on the vessel. In addition, for each served municipality, at least one specific lecture was scheduled for the dissemination of technology. The system installation allows free access for interested visitors to the laboratory where the PV equipment systems (batteries, load controller and inverter) are located, though there is no direct access to the photovoltaic panel on the roof, due to the fact that its location is considered dangerous to the public in general. However, the thermal system is mounted on the roof in a location that allows access for visitors, in small groups (5 people) to be instructed about the operation of the system.
3.1. Bibliography
Galdino, M.A. et al, 2010, "Criação de Quatro Centros de Demonstração de Energias Renováveis em diferentes regiões do país". In: Congresso brasileiro de Energia Solar, 3., Belém, Set.
UFPE, 2000. Atlas Solarimétrico do Brasil: Banco de Dados Terrestres. 1ª ed. Recife, Ed. Universitária da UFPE. ISBN 85-7315-142-0.
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