The University of São Paulo will construct a photovoltaic power plant, in association with a local electric company, which will be the third solar power plant and the second to supply electricity to the public grid in Brazil. The plant will be powered by 2,500 solar panels to be installed in the city and will have a generating capacity of 500 kilowatts. The total cost of the project is estimated at 6.4 million dollars, and it will be overseen by the Ministry of Energy of the state of São Paulo.

This is one of 18 projects approved in 2011 by the National Electric Power Agency to lower the cost of solar power generation to one third of the current cost of almost 145 dollars per megawatt/hour.

“When the power generation source is connected to the distribution grid, data will be gathered that will help to evaluate its performance,” Rafael Herrero Alonso, an engineer at the Integrated Systems Laboratory and one of the project directors, told Tierramérica.