From candles to PV electricity: A four-year experience at Iguape-Cananeia,Brazil

A PV rural electrification experience, based on the solar home system (SHS) , is being carried out at a coastal region in the state of Sao Paulo (Brazi l). Particular attention has been paid to aspects, relating to the integrat ion of PV technology into the pre-existing social system. Regarding technic al aspects, some special features hare been designed: a 'battery shelter' m ade by the users; combined use of 'high power' fluorescent light with 'low, power' incandescent light, etc. Regarding organizational aspects the techn ical training should be outlined We initially decided to train one user in each community move intensively, This user was chosen from among those who appeared to be more skillful relation to our requirements. This apparently common-sense oriented procedure was shown to be less than appropriate, beca use it interfered with social relationships that we knew very little about. We observed that later on the community decided who would be responsible f or the maintenance; this time widely accepted by all the users. The technic al and organizational aspects together conform to a particular rural electr ification scheme that can be useful for general SHS projects, Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.