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Heavy rains recently triggered flooding in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul when Lake Guaíba and the Taquari and Uruguay rivers overflowed, reaching more than 5.30 meters and affecting more than 1.95 million people. The death toll stands at 143, and 125 people are still missing. The authorities have not yet evaluated the losses of the submerged or affected photovoltaic plants.
The Brazilian meteorology institute MetSul warned on April 21 about “successive episodes of rain in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, with high volumes in some areas.” On April 27, Canoas, Novo Hamburgo and Porto Alegre suffered the first floods. In a few days, Lake Guaíba, the main body of water in the region, reached levels of 5.30 meters, exceeding the flood level by 3.30 meters. This surpassed the previous record set in 1941, when Lake Guaíba reached 4.77 meters. According to authorities, on the morning of May 10, 435 municipalities - almost 90% of the state of Rio Grande do Sul - had been affected by flooding.
The Rio Grande do Sul disaster has become one of the 10 environmental tragedies with the highest number of deaths in the country, since it has affected 136 people, while 141 are still missing. Aneel, the national energy regulator, said 326,000 customers are without electricity in the state, making it impossible to calculate losses from submerged or affected photovoltaic plants.
Due to flooding, the Nova Santa Rita substation remains out of service, which has left 16 important transmission lines out of service. This has weakened the connection between transmission systems and leaves the remaining systems overloaded and more susceptible to new contingencies, which could lead to load shedding.
Climate change
ClimaMeter researchers published a “rapid attribution study” last week and concluded that human action – particularly the emission of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation – has intensified rainfall in the Rio Grande. do Sul. According to the study, precipitation has become 15% more intense due to climate change. In March, a ClimaMeter attribution study also showed that current heat waves are 1°C warmer than in the past.
“ClimateMeters findings highlight that flooding in the state of Rio Grande do Sul was intensified by the burning of fossil fuels, not by El Niño,” said Davide Faranda, researcher at the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute of Climate Sciences.
Faranda stated that these floods disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, which bear a small part of the responsibility for climate change. He noted the need to mitigate risks by immediately reducing fossil fuel emissions. Solar energy, considered an alternative to emissions-intensive energy sources, has also been affected by the catastrophe.
Companies, associations, representative entities, independent professionals and volunteer groups from all over the country are mobilizing in support of the victims, together with the initiatives of public authorities at all levels. Numerous donations of equipment, supplies and financial resources are being made to help the population of Rio Grande do Sul.
The solar sector has also promoted measures to mitigate the impacts caused by flooding. pv magazine interviewed several companies that are deploying solar energy systems in the state.
Soluções Pedroso, a company specialized in the installation of solar systems, raised financial aid for flood victims.
Mara Schwengber, coordinator of the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (Absolar) in Rio Grande do Sul and General Director of Solled Energia, also organized a fundraiser to help flood victims.
“As the G5 is spread throughout the country, in the first days we managed to raise financial resources to buy items such as water, food, cookies, cleaning materials and basic hygiene,” Schwengber said. “As a result, we got more people to participate and we are already organizing the donation of 100 double mattresses to local companies, which in some way need to resume their activities, in addition to a large batch of blankets that come from São Paulo and will be destined for the victims. ”.
Schwengber said Absolar cannot yet assess damage to photovoltaic systems in the state because victims are a priority and because water needs to recede to access these locations. “Lives are the priorities right now and we have to do everything we can to minimize suffering,” she added.
Photovoltaic impact
According to Absolar, Rio Grande do Sul is among the three Brazilian states with the highest installed capacity of solar energy for self-generation on rooftops and small plots, with a total of 2.7 GW. The states territory alone represents 9.6% of the photovoltaic power installed in the country, with more than 302,000 operational connections in 497 municipalities. Absolar has urged consumers to exercise caution with electrical equipment to avoid accidents, shocks or losses.
Yes Energia, a Porto Alegre-based installer, has digitally simulated the affected areas and crossed them with its installed photovoltaic systems. However, at the moment it is not possible to collectively evaluate the impact on the states photovoltaic systems.
Yes Energia project coordinator and database administrator Leandro Pandolfo said he began mapping the impact of the floods based on preliminary mapping data from the Hydraulic Research Institute (IPH).
“With the flooded areas mapped, we applied the layer containing the exact locations of the systems installed by Yes Energia. This is how we identify those affected by location and installed technology. With customers filtered by manufacturer and technology, we begin the process of checking alerts through our own system, called Yes Assist, and the manufacturers dedicated monitoring platform,” explains Pandolfo.
Nearly 400 customers of Yes Energia facilities in the state are in flooded areas. To date, 83 plants have been confirmed to be idle, with their systems shut down.
“We saw how the damage was done inside the house,” says Yes Energia co-founder Tiago Fernandes. “Those affected by the flood are our friends, colleagues and clients. Faced with these events, our commercial and administrative teams began to work remotely, while the technical teams focused mainly on emergencies. We develop an action plan, which consists of three fundamental steps: evaluation and collection of information; contact with business partners; and recovery of facilities and infrastructure.”
The Salgado Filho airport, one of the companys clients in Bairro São João, at one of the exits from Porto Alegre, was affected by floods 2.5 meters high. All operations at the airport have been suspended. Fraport, the airport manager, said operations will remain suspended until the end of this month.
“During a flood, all inverters activate a technology called “anti-islanding,” which stops power production during power grid outages, preventing solar energy from being injected into the damaged power grid,” said the manager of Yes Energia engineering, Pedro Spohr. “Our customer portfolio consists mainly of conventional string systems and SolarEdge systems.”
However, there is a big difference in the safety of these two models, he added.
“The modules will be energized as long as the sun shines, even if the system is not producing power,” Spohr said. “In chain systems, the circuits coming from the roof will have a high electrical voltage, which creates risks in these situations. “In SolarEdge systems, there are optimizers connected to the modules, which have a feature called Rapid Shutdown, a rapid shutdown mechanism that reduces voltage levels to almost zero, reducing the potential risk to the flooded area.”
Even with inverters equipped with this technology, Spohr says most customers do not have insurance for solar energy systems.
“We are in continuous contact with the manufacturers to mobilize to evaluate the damaged equipment, but if necessary, we will collect this entire equipment base and send it to a company specialized in electronics to try to recover the inverters,” he said. “However, if this is done, we know we will lose future guarantees.”
Due to high water levels in some cities, calculating equipment losses, especially for unsecured solar plants, remains a challenge. Even projects with insurance coverage may not fully recover the value of damaged equipment.
However, Elétron Solar, a Curitiba-based company specializing in solar insurance, offers coverage for these types of incidents, unlike many other insurers, said CEO Mauro Filho. Understanding the coverage offered by solar insurance before purchasing is crucial, as many incidents are not covered. Elétron policies have covered eight accident notifications in regions where the water has receded. Filho states that, during floods, the inverters are the most affected components, while the modules, which are usually more resistant to water, also suffer damage from materials carried by the water. |
