EN 
PT_BR 
With a decade of experience in the solar sector, Renovigi was one of the first companies to invest in photovoltaic energy generation in the country.
Formed by a group of businessmen from Chapecó (SC), the company emerged in 2012, the same year in which ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency) launched Resolution 482/2012, which started to allow its own production of energy with injection into the network and credit bonus.
Pioneering spirit brought innovation, and today, solar energy already has more than 30.6GW of installed power (70% in distributed generation), which represents 14.3% of the Brazilian electrical matrix, according to data from ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy).
But all of this would not have happened if it were not for a fundamental element: the first customers who had the vision to invest in a new company that brought an extremely recent renewable energy solution to the country.
Resident of Chapecó (SC), Luiz Silvio Scartazzini was one of them. In 2013, he closely followed the birth of Renovigi, as a professor and researcher at the Renewable Sciences nucleus at IFSC (Federal Institute of Santa Catarina), and acquired the first Renovigi modules for university projects.
With a doctorate in civil engineering, Luiz has been carrying out research on renewable energy since 2008, focusing on PCHs (Small Power Plants) and solar generation. At the time, everything was experimental. As injection into the grid was not yet permitted, the energy generated by the systems was consumed internally and discharged into a battery bank.
Between 2012 and 2013, Scartazzini was responsible for purchasing equipment resold by Renovigi, which was used in three projects developed by the university.
The first was an off grid system in a rural region in the municipality of Nonoi (RS), where dairy cattle are produced. Far from the transmission line, the producer suffered from recurring power outages and the idea was that the UPS formed by a bank of batteries powered by the solar system would come into operation with each power outage.
The second project consisted of developing a solar roof prototype that mechanically followed the direction of the sun, so that there was 100% of light use.
For the third, smaller plates were purchased to create a solar-powered vehicle for wheelchair users. All projects generated studies that were published by IFSC. He says that at the time, they were following a new path, carrying out experiments to understand how to better harness the energy potential of the solar source.
At the time, Brazil was experiencing an imminent energy crisis with repeated droughts and it began to be realized that a matrix based predominantly on water generation would not be sufficient. In this context, energy production using alternative sources such as biomass, wind and solar began to receive incentives from public policies.
Scartazzini believes that the lack of government support meant that the country was slow to have solar generation. According to him, there was no lack of consumers, sun and space for the installation, but there was a lack of government incentive for the businessman to have the vision of entering this business, which was done in 2012 when ANEEL authorized the generation of energy by consumers.
Adding these three items – government incentives, business and consumer investment – solar generation took its first steps in Brazil, with Renovigi as one of the pioneers in the sector.
In 2017, the company launched the “My Energy comes from the Sun” program. It involved the dissemination of proposals for distributed generation in homes with small and medium consumption, for the installation of systems with 6, 8, 10 or 12 plates. With the knowledge acquired through research at the university, Luiz acquired the system for his home with which he still produces energy today.
I remember that at the time, a system with 10 panels was installed with a total generation capacity of 3.2 kWp. However, the set of inverters reached a power of 2.5 kWp, an underestimate for the generation capacity of the modules. The energy generation it produces today is equivalent to around 80% of its consumption, but it could reach 95% if, at the time, it had more powerful inverters of 5 kW or 4 kW.
Today, Renovigi already works with string inverters with power of up to 125 kW and recently launched the 2000 W microinverter, which can be installed on the roof and allows control of each combination of panels.
Where it all began
Home to Renovigi, Nord has been in the market for 30 years manufacturing electronic panels for equipment and was one of the first companies to install a solar generation system in Chapecó (SC).
Director and partner at Nord, Marcísio Marzari says that he and his partner, Nelson Akimoto, have always invested in sustainability, establishing environmental concern as a guiding principle for the company. 12 years ago, when they built the building, they added a wind generator and purchased two 40 W solar panels.
Marzari says that Nord was one of the first companies to use solar energy, and Renovigi started two years before the law was approved. According to him, the system worked almost as if it were a technical plant. He also reports that they invested in solar energy because they knew it would grow and that it would provide a financial return.
Initially, Nord installed a 5 kWp system and later expanded to a 20 kWp system, currently operating with two inverters and around 80 250 W panels. Solar energy corresponds to 65% of the factory's consumption.
According to Marzari, the system works well and is not expanded due to lack of physical space. The executive, who is a great supporter of solar energy, recalls that at the time of Renovigi's creation, the country was going through an electrical crisis and began investing in alternative sources.
At this point, solar energy is the fastest, as it is possible to install a system in a month. Today, after more than 10 years, Nord is very satisfied with the performance and energy generation of the acquired system.
Investing in renewable energy is a path of no return. It is the evolution that the world asks for. I believe that if we can invest in something that will reduce damage to the environment, we should do so. With solar energy we have the chance to save on our electricity bills without destroying the environment.
Renovigi, as a pioneer in the sector, positions itself as one of the main players in the market and endorses its commitment to its customers with systems running for over 10 years in the country, an important point for a product line that currently has a warranty of up to 25 years of panel efficiency.
