Review Is the success of small-scale photovoltaic solar energy generation achievable in Brazil? Paula D. Rigo a, * , Julio Cezar M. Siluk a , Daniel P. Lacerda c , Carmen B. Rosa b , Graciele Rediske a a Department of Production and Systems Engineering, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Av. Roraima, 1000, Bairro Camobi, Santa Maria, RS, 97.105- 900, Brazil b Department of Electrical Energy Processing, Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Av. Roraima,1000, Bairro Camobi, Santa Maria, RS, 97.105-900, Brazil c Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS, Research Group on Modeling for Learning - GMAP | UNISINOS, Av. Unisinos, 950, Bairro Cristo Rei, S~ ao Leopoldo, RS, 93.022-000, Brazil article info Article history: Received 3 April 2019 Received in revised form 15 August 2019 Accepted 29 August 2019 Available online 31 August 2019 Handling Editor: Sandro Nizetic Keywords: Solar PV power Distributed microgeneration and minigeneration Critical success factors (CSF) Barriers abstract The Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy is an essential source for the transition of non-renewable energy generation to clean energy generation worldwide. One of the options to increase participation of PV in the Brazilian energy matrix is to invest in Small-scale Distributed Generation (DG). However, this gen- eration represents less than 0.3% of the demand consumed in the captive market of the country. Even though Brazilian consumers are interested in purchasing PV systems, selling the system is still a chal- lenge for the industry, since the sale conversion rate represented only 6.88% in 2018. In this context, this research aims to discuss what are the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the growth of the of photovoltaic solar energy in small scale in Brazil. The results of the study provided a total of 43 CSFs, which were cited 165 times by the selected articles, capable of explaining the success of the PV energy in Brazil. A hier- archical structure was structured, grouping the CSFs into six Fundamental Viewpoints (FV): economic; environmental; marketing; political; social, and technological. Through this analysis, it was possible to determine which CSFs are favorable aspects and barriers to the success of this technology, which may not enable the operation of productive systems with cleaner sources of energy. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2 2. The regulation of small-scale DG of solar PV in Brazil .................................................................................... 3 3. The definition of success for solar PV energy ................................................. .......................................... 4 4. The systematic literature review process ............................................................................................... 4 5. Results and discussion ............................................................................................................... 6 5.1. Fundamental Viewpoint 1: economic ............................................................................................. 6 5.2. The Fundamental Viewpoint 2: environmental ............................................. ....................................... 6 5.3. Fundamental Viewpoint 3: marketing ............................................................................................ 8 5.4. The Fundamental Viewpoint 4: political .......................................................................................... 8 5.5. The Fundamental Viewpoint 5: social ............................................................................................. 9 5.6. Fundamental Viewpoint 6: technological ............................................... ......................................... 9 6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 10 Declaration of interest .............................................................................................................. 12 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: paularigo@mail.ufsm.br (P.D. Rigo). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118243 0959-6526/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118243