UFPR opens largest carport photovoltaic plant in Brazil

During an online event held last Friday (11), UFPR (Federal University of Paraná) inaugurated the largest carport solar plant – roofs built from photovoltaic panels for parking areas – in Brazil.

The project, installed in an area of 7 thousand m² at the Centro Politécnico Campus, in Curitiba (PR), was carried out in partnership with Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia).

“R$ 21 million are invested in R&D (Research and Development) in this action, which covers practically all buildings at the federal university”, said João da Silva Dias, coordinator of the Energy Efficiency Project at UFPR and superintendent of Funpar.

According to Dias, the plant has 1.2 MW of power and 56 thousand LED lamps will be installed in the buildings, bringing savings of around R$ 2 million reais per year. In total, there are 2,376 panels on the 375 parking spaces in the biological sciences sector, in addition to another 538 modules on the roofs of the chemical and electrical engineering buildings.

“Copel participated in this special call in 2016 and embraced this project to bring energy efficiency and distributed resources to public higher education”, commented Julio Omori, superintendent of Smart Grid and Special Projects at Copel.

“Copel’s point of view is a seed planted for a promising future, and the electricity sector is increasingly focused on the sustainability of our planet”, concluded Omori.