en.Wedoany.com Reported - A restaurant in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, has converted its parking area into a solar carport using DAH Solar's SolarUnit technology, designed to generate approximately 26,000 kWh per month to address persistently high electricity costs.
The restaurant covers more than 3,000 square meters and features 100 parking spaces, with high electricity consumption making energy bills one of its main operating expenses. The project manager needed to provide shade for vehicles while also controlling energy costs, and both requirements ultimately converged into installing a solar power system over the parking lot.
The solar carport is equipped with 358 photovoltaic modules distributed across 119 DAH Solar SolarUnit kits. This kit integrates photovoltaic modules with microinverters into a single unit.
The restaurant initially estimated its monthly electricity consumption at approximately 50,000 kWh, but actual usage reached around 78,000 kWh per month, with electricity bills fluctuating between 70,000 and 80,000 reais. The high consumption is driven by the restaurant's own infrastructure: four large central air conditioning systems, as well as kitchen equipment, lighting, and other operational loads. Since the carport's generation capacity falls short of actual demand, nearly all of the electricity produced by the solar system is consumed on-site by the restaurant.
Project manager José Jereissati stated that cost control is one of the main challenges in business management. "In today's Brazil, regardless of the industry, costs must be strictly controlled. Whether it's a restaurant, a store, or any other type of business, costs are what matter most. Therefore, the entrepreneur's ongoing struggle is with costs," he said in an interview with Canal Solar.
Since the carport has no available space for expansion and the restaurant's roof is also constrained by structural conditions, expanding the photovoltaic installation is not feasible. Carlos de Aquino Gomes, commercial manager and project coordinator at EBES Solar, explained this limitation. In this context, the restaurant has initiated the process of migrating to the free electricity market, planning to combine self-generation with power purchases from that market as a strategy for managing electricity expenses.
The parking lot experiences shading at different times of the day, a characteristic that influenced the system configuration. The solution employs microinverters, with each one connected to two to three modules, providing greater modularity in the face of varying shading conditions and enabling segmented monitoring of installation performance.
Dust accumulation on equipment was also a consideration in the selection process. The modules used feature full-screen technology, which helps water flow off and reduces points where dirt can accumulate. Gomes explained that rainwater itself helps clean the panels, preventing overheated areas that could cause panel cracking and reduce productivity—the so-called hot spot effect. Module selection also took into account ease of maintenance, especially given the installation conditions above the parking lot.
Thais Bittencourt, Latin America market manager at DAH Solar Brazil, stated that the frameless full-screen design makes cleaning simple, which is crucial for the Fortaleza carport project and also simplifies module maintenance. She also noted that SolarUnit is a complete kit in itself, comprising high-power full-screen modules and microinverters specifically developed by DAH, with modules capable of generating up to 15% more power, a figure that has been tested and certified. "This factory integration is precisely what guarantees optimal performance for such carport projects."
