# Potential of Photovoltaic Generation in the Putumayo Department of Colombia
## 1 Introduction  
Energy resources are vital elements for sustainable development, and despite the importance of electric energy as a resource, as reported by the World Bank in 2018, approximately one billion people in the world are living without electricity [1]. According to the Institute for Planning and Promotion of Energy Solutions (IPSE) for non-interconnected zones (ZNI) in Colombia and the Single Information System for Residential Public Utilities (SUI), Colombia's ZNI represent 52% of the country's territory [2]. In the case of the department of Putumayo there is a low coverage rate of 48.38% for rural areas [3]. The first auction of non-conventional renewable energy in Colombia was held in 2019; however, renewable sources will be connected to the main grid without providing energy solutions to the ZNI [4].  
Fossil fuel energy production has been one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the highest in history this last decade. Therefore, complementing the energy matrix with renewable energies (RE) is a necessity, especially considering the energy vulnerability of Colombia to the uncertainty presented by the phenomena of climatic variability such as El Nino [5].  
To take advantage of RE resources, the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) publishes climatological data for Colombia, which showsthat Putumayo's irradiation is in the range of 3 to 3.5 KWh/m2 day [6]. On the other hand, some researchers have conducted work to determine the solar energy potential in different regions of the country. Some studies have focused on the energy potential and the technical and economic viability of solar power plants in different regions of the country [7; 8; 9]. In addition, the performance of different solar panel technologies was evaluated [10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17].  
It is important to note that the factors of losses due to shading orientation and inclination of systems close to the Earth's equator play an important role in the performance of solar systems [18]. Additionally, there are reported studies on the variation of solar brightness and the characterization of solar radiation using the Angstrom model [18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23].  
In addition to the lack of electricity coverage, in the department of Putumayo there is low service quality and a high level of nonconformity due to the cost of electricity. Likewise, no RE studies have been done in the area, and the local solar energy potential is unknown. Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine the effective potential for solar photovoltaic power generation in Putumayo department with a detailed methodology considering the information of different remote database and meteorological stations and technical conditions. In this work it was estimates the effective generation potential through the consideration of some technical and geographic conditions.  
The methodology developed for this research allows for calculating the potential of effective solar photovoltaic energy that can be generated in a certain place, taking into account the characteristics of the technology, the installation of the technology and losses generated, the usable percentage of the area of roofs of houses to install solar panels, the data on sunshine and temperatures taken by a weather station, and irradiance data taken by remote sensors. This methodology can be used globally. The results allow for evaluating the energy potential that can be generated in a populated area just using a portion of the roofs of private homes.