Occupational Safety and Health in Solar Home Systems (SHS) by Brazilian Standards

Abstract

The use of renewable energy in Brazil has increased due to the possibility of reducing the environmental and economic impacts. Therefore, the solar energy has been used around the country due to its economic and environmental advantages, also because of the governmental support through incentives and tax benefits. One of the ways to generate energy through solar radiation is the Solar Home Systems (SHS), which comprise a solar panel to convert sunlight available in the top of the buildings into useful electrical energy. However, the installation and maintenance of SHS present risks and hazards to the workers and users, especially because the activities are done at heights and falling is one of the greatest causes of death by work. This is why it is so important to provide measures to avoid or reduce harms. Hence, the present paper aims to analyze the risks regarded to the installation, operation and maintenance of SHS and the measures recommended by the Brazilian standards to nullify or mitigate those. To achieve this goal, a descriptive and exploratory bibliographical review was carried out. Finally, it was observed the importance of the safety at height and in electrical activities such as the Solar Home System (SHS) operations, as the number of accidents is still high in Brazil. Therefore, it is necessary to know all the available standards documents to ensure all the safety measures are taken, to comply with all system requirements, and to protect the health and well-being of the employee and employer.