Photovoltaic water pumping systems installer training: a partnership experience between the university and São Francisco hydroelectric power plant

Photovoltaic water pumping systems installer training: a partnership experience between the university and São Francisco hydroelectric power plant

Renewable Energy 21 (2000) 187±205 www.elsevier.com/locate/renene Photovoltaic water pumping systems installer training: a partnership experience bet...

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Renewable Energy 21 (2000) 187±205 www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Photovoltaic water pumping systems installer training: a partnership experience between the university and SaÄo Francisco hydroelectric power plant E.M. de S. Barbosa a, C. Tiba a,*, C.J.C. Salviano b, A.M. Carvalho c, M.F. Lyra c a

Federal University of Pernambuco, Group of Research on Alternative Sources of Energy, Av. Prof. Luiz Freire, 1000, 50 740540; CDU, Recife, PE, Brazil b Pernambuco Electricity Company, CELPE, Av. JoaÄo de Barros, 111, 50 050540, Boa Vista, Recife, PE Brazil c SaÄo Francisco Hydroelectric Power Plant, CHESF (Xingo Program), Rua Delmiro Gouveia, 333, 50 761901, Bongi, Recife, PE Brazil Received 9 November 1999; accepted 6 January 2000

Abstract A broad demonstration process of photovoltaic solar technology for the powering of rural areas lacking power and water supply is currently being developed in Brazil. Due to the severe and problematic drought that now impacts an extensive area of Brazil, particularly the northeast region, compromising agriculture and with a more serious consequence a€ecting water supply for human and animal consumption, emergency actions to mitigate these conditions are being undertaken. For this purpose, the Program for Energy Development in States and Municipalities (PRODEEM) aims to install approximately 800 photovoltaic water pumping systems, of which approximately 236 by mid 1999. The massive process of installation and maintenance of these systems, requires skilled technical sta€. In order to accomplish such a broad program, the universities play a key role: the training of human resources. The Group of Research on Alternative Sources of Energy of the Federal University of Pernambuco (FAE/UFPE Group) has a long tradition on human resource training on solar energy, and it was invited to participate in

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +55-81-271-8252; fax: +55-81-271-8250. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Tiba). 0960-1481/00/$ - see front matter 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 1 4 8 1 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 0 7 - 0

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this process by teaching training courses to several groups of middle-level technicians. Some 145 technicians, coming from several states of the northeast involved in the program were trained in only three weeks, after which they installed approximately 86% of the expected systems (225). The systems are now running in the communities. This paper provides a detailed report on the training process, on the course evaluation accomplished by the students, the diculties and the logistic problems found, and the lessons learned. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In Brazil, 25 million people, approximately 15% of the population, do not have access to electric power. They are the rural populations who have a low power consumption and live in scattered dwellings far away from the established power network. Because of this status, the Brazilian Government has designed and is now implementing the Program for Energy Development in States and Municipalities (PRODEEM), whose objective is to provide rural electri®cation using renewable energy technologies. This program, coordinated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), on Phase I has installed approximately 381 photovoltaic systems (water pumping, public illumination, and residential and/or community systems) totaling 1723 kWp. Phase II, now ongoing, counts 808 systems; 428 kWp. Phase III includes 853 systems; 554 kWp, totaling approximately 1.4 MWp. Due to the severe and problematic drought that now impacts an extensive area of Brazil, particularly the northeast of Brazil, compromising the agricultural production, and with even more serious consequences, a€ecting water supply for human and animal consumption, the Ministry of Mines and Energy decided, in an emergency action, to anticipate phase III and speed up phase II, as far as the installation of photovoltaic water pumping systems is concerned. In this emergency action for coping with the drought, 260 photovoltaic waterpumping systems were distributed in six states of the northeast of Brazil (CearaÂ, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Bahia), Fig. 1. The organizational work¯ow for the implementation of the emergency action involves the Federal and State (MME/PRODEEM) Governments, the local communities Municipal Administrations (City Halls), in addition to the largest electric power generating company of the northeast SaÄo Francisco Hydroelectric Power Plant Ð CHESF. PRODEEM is responsible for supplying the photovoltaic systems; CHESF, by way of Xingo Program, is responsible for distributing the systems, for overlooking the facilities, and for providing training courses to the assembler technicians. The State Governments are responsible for appointing their installers (middle level technicians), who should be trained, and together with the City Halls they should select the wells and supply all the necessary infrastructure for enabling them to receive the photovoltaic water pumping systems. The Group of Research on Alternative Energy Sources at Pernambuco Federal

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University (FAE/UFPE Group) has had a long tradition in training and skill building of human resources in the area of solar energy, both at Post-Graduate and medium levels. Based on what has been exposed so far, the FAE Group was hired by XingoÂCHESF Program to train technicians of di€erent states of the northeast who will make up the state teams of assemblers and supervisors. The Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems Installer Training (TISBAF, Treinamento de Instaladores de Sistemas de Bombeamento de AÂgua Photovoltaic), designed and taught by the FAE/UFPE Group team is made up of three parts, and has a strongly practical character. It consists of a short theoretical part, an experimental part where the several practical aspects such as the direction of the panel, the interconnection of the modules, and the electric connection between the pump and the generator, and more are individually executed by the students and, as conclusion of the training, the students should install a photovoltaic water pumping system in a previously selected well. In the speci®c case of the course for the installers of the PRODEEM/XingoÂ, the training was accomplished during the month of September 1998 (TISBAF/XingoÂ/ 98) at a middle-level school (Federal Technical School of Alagoas Ð ETFAL),

Fig. 1. Geographical location of the Brazilian northeast region.

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located in the city of Piranhas, approximately 500 km far from our base, Recife. At this place, Fig. 1, there is one of the main hydroelectric units of the CHESF system (11,000 MWe), the Hydroelectric Unit of Xingo (3000 MWe). The last part of the course was accomplished in nearby communities, lacking water supply and electric power systems. Three water-pumping systems were permanently installed, one per trained group/week. This paper provides a detailed report on the training process, on the course evaluation accomplished by the students, on the diculties and on the logistic problems found during the accomplishment of such a course, and ®nally the lessons learned.

2. Water resources in the Brazilian northeast semi-arid region The eight northeastern States of Brazil, (Fig. 1) represent 18% of the total area of the country and account for 16% of its global production. In contrast, it sustains approximately 28% (42 million people) of the Brazilian population. Furthermore, in about half of this area, 760,000 km2, with semi-arid climate, live more than 17 million people. The climate in the semi-arid region is hot and dry, with a mean annual temperature of 278C and about 2500 h/year of insolation, in the average. The annual rainfall varies between 400 and 800 mm, in contrast to an evapotranspiration of 2500 mm/year, which determines a dry season of more than 7 months. The average of the annual rainfall is a poor climatic parameter, since the total amount of rainfall and its distribution in any one year is extremely erratic, e.g. 20% of the annual rainfall may occur on a single day [1]. The vegetation cover in the semi-arid region is a dry tropical deciduous forest, locally known as ``caatinga'', which develops on a complex mosaic of soils with contrasting characteristics. High levels of insolation, scanty hydric resources and scarce rains, which are also badly distributed, cause long periods of drought. The relative shortage of surface water springs in the northeastern semi-arid region, has highlighted the importance of underground water. The exploration of this water is limited by the nature of the lands, predominantly crystalline, due to the relatively low out¯ow (an average of 3000 l/h) and mainly due to quality. The vast majority of the wells have salinity rates which are greater than the maximum limit allowed for human consumption: 1000 ppm (parts per million) of total solids dissolved, and in many cases above 6000 ppm, which is the highest limit of water salinity for animal consumption [2]. In addition, another aspect that hinders the solution of the problem of water supply is the low rate of rural electri®cation in the northeast. Not more than 14% of the rural properties of the area are powered through the conventional electric power net.

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3. Description of the training course 3.1. Con®guration of the TISBAF training The Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems Installer Training fundamentally addresses the practical aspects of the installation of a photovoltaic water pumping system. In this sense, it emphasizes the practical classes so that the basic concepts of solar engineering, which are necessary for the correct installation of these systems, can be better understood by the students. Speci®cally regarding TISBAF/XingoÂ, the planned number of credits was 40 h/ week. The content was split into three parts; a ®rst 8 h theoretical part, followed by 16 h of practical classes, in which the theoretical concepts studied in the ®rst part were practiced in several experiments. The third part was reserved for the ®nal installation of a pumping system by the students, together with the instructors, in a previously chosen rural community. Finally, on the last day, 4 h were allocated for both the students' and the course's evaluations. 3.2. Teaching materials The teaching materials used were: course notes, slides, overheads, videos and experimental kits equipped with measuring instruments. The following teaching materials were designed and written by the teachers of the FAE Group: 1. ``Instalac° aÄo de Sistemas de Bombeamento de AÂgua com tecnologia fotovoltaica''. Parte 1 Ð Teoria (Installation of Photovoltaic Technology Water Pumping Systems. Part 1 Ð THEORY), (73 pages), including the following topics: * Quantifying the energy of the sun Ð the solar resource. * Basic concepts of the earth Ð sun geometry; direction and tilt of the generator. * Basic concepts of photovoltaic conversion; the photovoltaic e€ect. * Modules, panels and photovoltaic arrangements; series and parallel connections. * Applications of photovoltaic technology for rural powering: residential solar and water pumping systems. 2. ``Instalac° aÄo de Sistemas de Bombeamento de AÂgua com Tecnologia Fotovoltaica''. Parte 2 Ð PraÂticas experimentais (Installation of photovoltaic technology water pumping systems. Part 2 Ð Practical experiments), of six practical classes with an option for di€erent depth levels, depending on the students' level; * Direction and tilt of the photovoltaic generator. * Characteristic curve of a photovoltaic module. * Photovoltaic arrangements: series and parallel connections.

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*

Photovoltaic system for rural residential electri®cation. Photovoltaic water pumping system: mechanical assembly and electric connections of the photovoltaic panel, system grounding. Photovoltaic water pumping system: procedures for the electric cable interconnection of the PV generator supply/motor-pump/converter.

3. ``Instalac° aÄo de Sistemas de Bombeamento de AÂgua com Tecnologia Fotovoltaica''. Parte 3 Ð MANUAL DE INSTALAC° AÄO DE SISTEMAS FOTOVOLTAICOS DE BOMBEAMENTO DE AÂGUA (Installation of Photovoltaic Technology Water Pumping Systems. PART 3 Ð Water pumping photovoltaic systems installation manual). This is the manual that was used in the process of implementation of the systems of Phase II Ð emergency/ PRODEEM.

3.3. Methodology and course program The course under focus was taught to three di€erent groups in 3 weeks in a row (1 class/week). As previously mentioned, the course was split into three parts. The ®rst and the second parts were organized in a quite interactive mode. Each practical class was preceded by an explanation of the necessary theoretical fundamentals for the sake of understanding. Thus, for example, after the explanation about the solar resource and the direction of the PV generator (theoretical classes T1 and T2), the students in practical lesson P1 trained how one should correctly position the photovoltaic generator verifying the variation of the solar resource on the collector panel, its inclination, and direction; practical lessons P2 and P3 were preceded by theoretical classes T2 and T3, and so forth. Table 1 shows the typical schedule for 1 class/week and Table 2 shows concisely the list of the applied practical classes and their objectives. The experiment kits, necessary to the practical classes, accompanied by the relevant measuring instruments, were mounted and installed in the internal yard of the school and made available to the students. The regular classes related to the conceptual part were taught to the whole class (45 students); on the other hand, the practical classes were taught to smaller groups of students. After each practical class the students prepared their reports under the supervision of the instructors. Later on, the results were jointly discussed with the whole class. Figs. 2±5 show some ¯ashes during the relevant training. After the accomplishment of the third part Ð in situ installation of a photovoltaic water pumping system Ð with the teachers' supervision, a written evaluation of the students and of the course was done. The in situ facilities of the photovoltaic pumping system, due to their speci®city, will be approached on the next item.

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Table 1 Photovoltaic technology water pumping systems installer training: typical schedule for 1 week Day

Shift

Activities

First (Monday)

Morning

Reception and introduction of the students and of the team; presentation of the training and distribution of materials; Classes T1a, T2 and P1b Classes T3, T4 and P2; group discussion of the reports pertinent to classes P1 and P2 Classes P3 and P6; presentation of videos related to the subject at issue Classes P3 and P6; presentation of videos related with the subject at issue; group discussion of the reports pertinent to classes P3 and P6 Classes P4 and P5 Class P7, group discussion of the reports pertinent to classes P4, P5 and P7 Preparation of materials/equipment for the assemblage the next day Assemblage and installation of a PV water pumping system

Afternoon Second (Tuesday)

Morning Afternoon

Third (Wednesday)

Morning Afternoon

Fourth (Thursday) Fifth (Friday) a b

Morning Afternoon Morning

Evaluations of the students (written test) and of the training course (questionnaire)

Theoretical class 1, and so forth. Practical experiment 1, and so forth.

4. Installation of a water pumping system in the ®eld For the completion of the training, the students of each group, together with the team of teachers and assistants, installed a pumping system in a previously chosen well, 40 km far away from the city where the course took place. This training phase is of utmost importance, as besides the technical aspects it allows the students to experience all the inherent organizational and logistic issues for the displacement to a remote and inhospitable area, usually without drinking water, food or medical help. It mimics in a very realistic way the conditions to be found during the installation process of the facilities of the PV pumping systems in their local areas. 4.1. Selection of the wells Approximately 75 days before the beginning of the training, a preparatory trip was undertaken to inspect several wells of the region, to select approximately three of them and to check the need of civil works to adapt them to the installation of PV water pumping systems. Within 100 km from the base of the training, six previously selected wells were visited. Three of them had a high content of salts, a salinity rate above 2400 ppm of dissolved total solids. The remaining three wells had 540, 892 and 1417 ppm of dissolved total solids. The

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Table 2 Photovoltaic technology water pumping systems installer training: list of practical experiments Number of practical experiments

Objective(s)

P1: direction of the PV arrangement P2: characteristic curve of the PV module P3: photovoltaic arrangements

To determine the direction and the tilt of a PV module so that the maximum incidence of solar radiation occurs To determine the electric characteristics of the PV generator

P4: residential rural electri®cation P5: photovoltaic pumping P6: assemblage of a speci®c PV arrangement P7: connecting generator and motor-pump

Connect modules in series/parallel, to check the changes in the output electric characteristics and to determine the module combination laws To learn about a typical solar home system (SHS), its components and connections To learn about a typical PV pumping system, its components and connections. System commissioning To learn how to set up and connect the PV modules in a necessary arrangement to a certain systema To learn the connection and isolation procedures between the generator supply cables and the motor-pump/converter

a The practical lesson was accomplished with a system con®guration similar to the PV pumping system that would be installed in the ®eld the following day.

latter is used only for animal water consumption. In all of them, old weather vane pumping systems were found damaged and inoperative. Taking into account the quality of the water, the number of bene®ciaries and the relative proximity of the training location (40 km), the three latter were considered as candidates to implement photovoltaic systems to be installed during the training. Table. 3 shows a list of those wells including their main characteristics: name, salinity, and their

Fig. 2. Theoretical class T1: solar resource and direction of the PV generator.

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Fig. 3. Theoretical class T1: solar resource and direction and tilt of the PV generator.

distances from the established electric networks and from the city of Piranhas (base location of the training). 4.2. Installation of PV water pumping systems The typical system to be installed in the facilities during the TISBAF were made up of 8 PV modules totaling 512 Wp, a multi-stage submersible pump with a DC

Fig. 4. Practical class P1: direction and tilt of the PV generator.

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motor without brushes and with a permanent magnet, and a current ``booster'' controller. The installation of the PV water pumping system in the ®eld was accomplished by following a route that was similar to the one seen during the classes: demarcation of the correct direction of the arrangement on the land; mechanical assemblage of the arrangement; electric connection of the arrangement; electric connection of the motor-pump to the generator; pump lowering inside the well; electric grounding of the system and ®nally the electric connection of the motor-pump-converter-PV generator. Each group of 40/45 students was split into three groups that accomplished di€erent activities simultaneously, for example, the demarcation of the N±S line, the mechanical assemblage of the arrangement and the preparation of the electric

Fig. 5. Practical class P2 and P3: photovoltaic arrangement types and electric characteristics (series/ parallel).

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grounding system. Whenever possible, a group exchange was made so that everybody could participate in the whole process. The following pictures, Figs. 6±8 illustrate some views of the installation of the system during the TISBAF/XingoÂ, showing the FAE team and students coming from several states involved in the PRODEEM Program.

5. Evaluation (Figs. 9±17) 5.1. Students' evaluation The students' evaluation involved three di€erent phases: observation of the degree of the student's involvement in the theoretical and practical classes, the technical reports of the experiments, their involvement in the ®eld work (assemblage and installing the pumping systems) and a written test. Usually, in training courses similar to this, candidates are quite heterogeneous regarding their diversity and degree of formal knowledge and their professional experience, as well as their age range. The youngest and most recently graduated students usually achieve better results in the written tests, while senior technicians, in spite of having a longer professional experience such as a long and practical experience in assembling and installing conventional electric and pumping systems, for example, do not achieve good scores in the written tests. The ®nal evaluation took these peculiarities into account. And, as a ®nal result,

Table 3 Characteristics of the selected wells Name

Location

Characteristics

Pedra da Salina well

40 km from Piranhas city-Al 10 km from the established electric network

Depth 60.0 m Static level 1.8 m

Caicara well

Lagoa do Serrote Well

40 km from Piranhas city -Al 12 km from the established electric network 40 km from Piranhas city-Al 7 km from the established electric network

Dynamic level 31.6 m; Out¯ow 5.8 m3/h 540 ppm (DTS) Depth 60.0 m Static level 0.4 m Dynamic level 33.6 m; Out¯ow 5.9 m3/h 892 ppm (DTS) Depth 60.0 m Static level 1.83 m Dynamic level 25.92 m; Out¯ow 10.7 m3/h 1417 ppm (DTS)

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approximately 75% of the students were deemed quali®ed to integrate a team of PV pumping systems installers. It was also suggested to PRODEEM/CHESF/ Xingo (institutions that are responsible for the implementation of the systems) that when appointing the teams of installers, whenever possible, more experienced ®eld technicians should be mixed with more formally educated younger students, with a shorter professional experience. 5.2. Course evaluation As previously mentioned, the course under focus aimed at training installers of water pumping photovoltaic systems coming from six states of the Brazilian northeast region. Within the perspective that this course would be the ®rst of a series, the FAE Group decided to evaluate it carefully, in order to allow for a precise diagnosis on the points that deserved in fact to be adjusted for the following courses. In this sense, an extensive questionnaire was designed, in which the students should anonymously qualify the following items or sub-items with the concepts Good, Fair or Poor: . Materials: Theoretical notes Practical notes Notes±manual teaching

Fig. 6. Installation of the pumping system in a community: assemblage and installation of the photovoltaic arrangement.

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Fig. 7. Assemblage and electric connection of the motor-pump.

. Presentation of the theoretical/practical classes: Visual resources in the classes Presentation of the classes Experimental kits Performance of the assistants in the practical classes Support in report design preparation . Installation of the pumping system in the ®eld: Logistic support (transportation and meals) Presentations by the monitors Performance of support technicians

Fig. 8. Final view of the installation and the system being used by end-users.

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Fig. 9. Percentage of students which ®lled out the questionnaires.

Degree of students' participation in the assemblage Satisfaction for having collaborated in the assemblage of the system . Regarding course organization Transportation from the city of origin to the training site Local transportation during the course Lodging Meals Information on PRODEEM and others Student's communication with the coordinators of the training course

Fig. 10. Result of the course evaluation inquiry: teaching materials (theoretical, practical and manual teaching notes).

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Fig. 11. Results of the evaluations of both the teaching material and theoretical classes and experiments.

Of the 134 students enrolled in the course, 103 students, approximately 77%, ®lled out the questionnaire, Fig. 9. Table. 4 summarizes the main results of this inquiry. The results show that the course as a whole was considered Good by approximately 75% of the total of students, corresponding to the three groups. However, a more detailed analysis of the responses by evaluated items and by each group individually shows that the result was lowered by the evaluation data generated by the students of the ®rst group.

Fig. 12. Results of the evaluations of both the teaching material and theoretical classes and experiments without including the evaluation of the number of available experimental kits.

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Fig. 13. Results of the evaluation regarding course organization.

After the completion of the activities of the ®rst group, a quick analysis of the questionnaires made possible diagnosing failures such as: (a) for an essentially practical course, there was an excessive amount of students (45 students), and this also implied an excessive number of students per group for the accomplishment of experimental tasks; (b) failure in the follow-up of the design and discussion of the experimental reports; (c) faulty communication between students and the coordinators of the training course; (d) dissatisfaction for their little participation opportunity in the assemblage of

Fig. 14. Time evolution (group 1) of the concepts assigned to sub-items: experimental kits and followup in the design of reports.

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Fig. 15. Time evolution (group 2) of the concepts assigned to sub-items: experimental kits and followup in the design of reports.

the PV water pumping system in the ®eld, once again as a result of the excessive number of students per group. The corrective measures, whenever possible, were implemented for the following groups. As an example, corrective measures taken in relation to sub-items such as the performance of the assistants in the practical classes, and the follow-up in the design of the reports allowed us to raise the concept Good from 46% in the ®rst group to 62% for the third group. Equally, in the sub-item communication between students and the coordinators of the training course, the 48% Good quali®cation in the ®rst group, was raised to 62% in the third group. The graphs in Figs. 10±17 illustrate these notes. The detailed discussion of the several aspects and problems raised by such a training can be seen in [3].

Fig. 16. Results of the evaluation of the item: installation of the system in the ®eld.

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Fig. 17. Results of the evaluation of the item: installation of the system in the ®eld, without including the item ``degree of participation opportunity''. Table 4 Results of the course evaluation inquiry Item description

Good (%)

Fair (%)

Poor (%)

No response (%)

Teaching material Presentation of theoretical/experimental classes Installation demonstration of the pumping system in the ®eld Regarding course organization

80 69 72 77

18 26 24 17

0 2 3 1

2 3 1 5

6. Conclusions Brazil is nowadays implementing a medium-scale photovoltaic technology demonstration program. In this process of insertion of an innovative technology in the market, such as the solar photovoltaic energy, technicians' education is fundamental at all levels. In this context, this training is signi®cant as it was the ®rst massive training of technicians on solar energy in Brazil for a speci®c program in the ®eld of renewable energy (PRODEEM). The organization and logistics of the course, that allowed to displace a number of equipments and teachers to over 500 km from our base in Recife, to transport students from their states of origin to the training site (for some states this meant approximately 1600 km), was a result of the team of engineers and technicians from SaÄo Francisco hydroelectric power plant. The partnership and concertation between the Federal University of Pernambuco, in charge of the didactic content of the training, and CHESF, responsible for the logistics of the course were fundamental and decisive for a successful result. Finally, we have the information that as we complete this paper, approximately 225 PV technology water pumping systems (86% of the planned ®gures) are

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already installed in the states of Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, CearaÂ, Paraiba and Sergipe. The teams trained in the mentioned course did the installation work they were trained for, and this means that the training was successful, or at least, to some extent, the objectives of the training course were fully met. Acknowledgements The authors thank the SaÄo Francisco Hydroelectric Power Plant Xingo Program and the National Council of Research (CNPq). References [1] Barbosa EMS, Fraidenraich N, Fraga AN da S, Tiba C. Photovoltaic electri®cation social and technical diagnostic of systems installed in the northeast of Brazil after one operating year. In: Proceedings of the 13th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, 23±27 October, Nice, France. UK: H.S. Stephens and Associates, 1995. p. 1088±91. [2] Barbosa EMS, Tiba, C, Fraidenraich N AÂgua Limpa com Energia Limpa. RelatoÂrio TeÂcnico de Projeto, FAE/UFPE/RIER, Recife, PE, Brazil, 1998, 50 pp. [3] Tiba C, Barbosa EM de S, Fraidenraich N. VI Curso de Energia Solar-Instalac° aÄo de sistemas de bombeamento com tecnologia fotovoltaica, RelatoÂrio TeÂcnico Final, Recife, PE, Brazil, 1998, 80 pp.