The industrial development of solar photovoltaic technology has attracted investors and influenced governments to establish public policies for the sector. The present research consisted of studying, building and testing low concentration solar radiation systems for photovoltaic energy conversion. The study used optical nonimaging parameters for the V-trough type radiation concentrator constructed of anodized aluminum, to reflect and to cool. Designed to concentrate radiation by about two times and consisting of a set of photovoltaic modules connected in parallel, they were modeled in the Laboratory of Energy Area in the Department of Agricultural Engineering of the Federal University of Vicosa, Brazil, at the coordinates 20°45′14′′ S latitude, 42°52′53′′ W longitude and altitude 648.74 m. They were installed to the geographic North, with the same slope as the local latitude. For comparative analysis, it was determined the electrical characteristics for evaluation of the prototype’s performance with and without radiation concentration, the final productivity for cities in tropical and temperate regions and economic analysis for the system. It was concluded that the prototypes allowed for a gain of energy with concentration, about 31.3% more, and therefore a productivity gain for the analyzed cities in, kWh·kW_p⁻¹.

Increasing restrictions on the construction of new power plants lead the country to seek new sources to meet their energy needs. While developed countries promote the development of renewable energy sources, new natural gas and coal-fired power plants has been built in Brazil. These power plants operates with a high costs and affects the Brazilian electricity generation matrix, which is known as one of the cleanest in the world. Besides the high cost of operation, the usage fossil fuel contributes to the increase the population cases of health problems, mainly respiratory. In this work a comparative study between photovoltaic distributed generation and coal-fired power plants was conducted. Installation costs of photovoltaic systems were estimated to perform the economic analysis and the results were compared with the costs of a thermal plant. The PV system proves advantageous especially if health care costs associated with coal-fired power plants are taken into account. As crescentes restrições à construção de novas usinas hidrelétricas levam o país a buscar novas fontes para suprir suas necessidades energéticas. Enquanto países desenvolvidos promovem o desenvolvimento de fontes renováveis de energia o Brasil constrói novas usinas termelétricas, movidas a carvão e gás natural, que funcionam com um custo elevado e sujam a matriz de geração de energia elétrica brasileira. Além do alto custo de operação, as termelétricas movidas a combustíveis fósseis contribuem para o aumento de casos de problemas de saúde da população, principalmente respiratórios, nos locais próximos. Neste trabalho foi realizado um estudo comparativo entre a geração fotovoltaica distribuída e as termelétricas. Foram estimados os custos de instalação de sistemas fotovoltaicos para realizar a análise econômica e os resultados foram comparados com os custos de uma usina termelétrica. O sistema fotovoltaico se mostra vantajoso principalmente se forem levados em conta os custos com saúde associados a usinas termelétricas.