Northeastern Brazil Groundwater Project

Solar Power Development Project
 

Solar power is used to pump water from wells in northeast Brazil, but not as extensively as it should considering the amount of available sunlight in the region. One reason for the low popularity of solar energy in water projects in Brazil is that the only motors that are readily available to operate the pumps are alternate electrical current (a.c.) motors. With such motors, the direct current (d.c.) from the photovoltaic cells (solar panels) has to be transformed into a.c. current with a loss of efficiency. 

To make the process more efficient, Sunmotor International, a Calgary firm that specializes in solar energy applications, was contracted by PROASNE to adapt one of its specially designed d.c. motors to a line of Brazilian submersible pumps manufactured by Dancor S.A. Indústria Mecânica of Rio de Janeiro. This made the Brazilian pumps more efficient and the entire process of solar pumping more cost-effective. Under the same contract, Sunmotor also developed special motors that were coupled with booster pumps in the reverse osmosis equipment used for desalinization. Until now, solar power was not used for water desalinization in northeast Brazil. 

With the introduction of new groundwater exploration tools through PROASNE, including airborne geophysics and remote sensing, it will be possible to map the groundwater resources of large areas, rather than to restrict the searches to the immediate vicinity of the communities, as is presently the case. This "opening-up" of the territory to groundwater exploration and development is expected to substantially increase the number and the quality of drill targets for water wells throughout the Northeast, but it will also mean pumping water from distant sites that may be far from the conventional power grid. Solar power could become an important component of such a network as an alternate and relatively inexpensive energy source. 

In 2001, PROASNE with its partners Sunmotor, Dancor and SOHIDRA, a branch of the Water Resources Secretariat of the State of Ceará, installed an experimental solar pumping and desalinization station in the farming community of Livramento in the municipality of Irauçuba/CE. That community had no electricity, and for its water supply, it relied on a brackish well and a wind-powered pump with no desalinization equipment. The new station provided some 25 households with good quality water.  The experimental station is intended as a model to be replicated in other remote communities throughout northeastern Brazil. 

For more technical information, this site contains a preliminary report and the final report by the Canadian contractor Sunmotor International, as well as an article on the project published by the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CANSIA).  The experimental station was inaugurated in November 2001 by the then President of CIDA, Mr. Len Good.  Later, in March 2002, the station was visited by the former Minister for International Cooperation, Susan Whelan and by Federal MP Vic Toews.  The inauguration event received press coverage (in Portuguese).