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Sun Volt Solar

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We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

Photovoltaic panels manufactured at Federal Penitentiary

18 Nov 09 | Commentary, Solar Electric

I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman from the Department of Justice the other day. He was describing to me how the inmates at Otisville Federal Corrections Institute manufactured 24 MW of PV panels last year.  These panels cannot be sold to the general public for private use, however, they can be transferred to other branches of the government for installation at federal buildings and facilities.

In 2010, the Federal Correction Institute, Sheridan, Oregon is coming on line with a 50 MW/year PV panel manufacturing facility.  What this all means is there will likely be several large PV arrays coming on line at various federal facilities, such as penitentiaries, national parks, military bases, office buildings and the like.  There are several positives to this:

  1. It gives the inmates a marketable manufacturing skill which will be needed as more companies seek to manufacture PV products.
  2. Inmates are being productive.
  3. The government gets inexpensive PV panels for installation on its facilities.
  4. The money spent manufacturing PV panels is offset by the savings in electrical energy since the panels stay within the federal government system.
  5. It stimulates the economy because the balance of system components are still supplied from outside non-government sources.
  6. It reduces the overall energy consumption in the US, which is good for many reasons; lowers pollution, fosters energy independence, enhances national security, etc.

This is a smart use of taxpayer dollars.

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18 Nov 09 | Commentary, Solar Electric | Comments (0)

Enphase M-190 Microverters

09 Nov 09 | Solar Electric

I had a chance to work on the installation of a Photovoltaic (PV) array using the Enphase M-190 inverters last week.  I must admit, when I first heard of the concept of Microverters, I was a bit of a skeptic.

Adding many more active parts to a system seems like an invitation for failure.  Placing those inverters outside attached to a solar panel, sometimes on a hot roof, also seems like a problem.  Finally, investing in a brand new technology from an unknown company might not be wise.

Enphase-M190-72-240-S11-MC3-2

But then I installed them.  Here is what I like:

  1. Each panel now operates at its own Maximum Power Point.  Since I have worked in electronics for over 20 years, I realize that every transistor (thus every panel) has slightly different characteristics.  Having an inverter that is able to adjust for these differences increases efficiency.
  2. Some array shading issues are mitigated.  In the Northeast there are a lot of trees.  Leave any plot of land alone for about 10 years and there will be trees growing on it.  Many home owners do not want to clear cut their property.  Using these inverters means that partial array shading will not be as devastating as it would be with a single large inverter.  Basically, each panel acts as its own mini solar array, thus if one panel is shaded, the other unshaded panels are working at full power.
  3. The warranty is for 15 years, most inverters are warranted for 5 years.
  4. The array wiring is extremely simple, it would be difficult to install these incorrectly.
  5. The array is scalable.  If a homeowner Can’t afford 100% PV power right now, install what they can afford, then revisit the situation later.
  6. May be a good solution for apartment dwellers and other renters using temporary mounting systems.
  7. Can be used in an array with different size PV modules.
  8. Monitoring service available.  Monitors and logs output of each solar module in the array, thus can track array performance and be notified of any problems.

Obviously it is better to have a shade free solar site than to compromise the efficiency of the PV panels installed.  However, this makes it a viable option for sites that have a mostly shade free solar window (9am- 3pm year round), and can live with some reduction in array output.

Regarding the issues raised in paragraph two, I think the Enphase record speaks for itself.  I would recommend these to any customer who was looking to do a scalable system, or a system using different sized or types of PV panels.  I would install these on my own house and recommend them to other people as well.  I would be very surprised if other manufactures do not come out with a miniverter product lines.

Unfortunately, the power companies around here are a little behind the curve when it comes to new or innovative technology.  One in particular has been difficult to deal with for establishing a net metering account.

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09 Nov 09 | Solar Electric | Comments (0)

This is Solar Power, Part III

04 Nov 09 | Commentary, Environment

A review off all the energy systems powered by our sun, either directly or indirectly.

Part III: Liquid Bio Fuels

Renewable: Yes
Environmental impact: Moderate
EROEI: Low
Cost: Low to High
Maintenance cost: Depends

Corn Field prior to harvest

Corn Field prior to harvest

Bio fuels and bio mass can be anything that was grown for the purpose of conversion to a fuel.  A wood lot use to provide fuel for a wood stove to heat a house can be considered bio fuel.  For our purposes, however, I will limit the discussion to liquid fuels mostly used to replace fossil fuels in the transportation sector.

Plants convert sunlight and CO2 into starches, complex sugars and O2 via photosynthesis.  The process of photosynthesis is not fully understood and has not been replicated in a non-living organism.  Some plants, such as corn, sugar beets, sugar cane are good feed stocks for ethanol production.  Other plants, such as soy, corn, palms are good feed stocks for vegetable oils, which can be burned in their raw state, or turned into bio diesel.

The advantages are mainly that these fuels can be used in existing cars and trucks with little or no modifications.  They are lower carbon emitters than conventional fossil fuels because the feed stocks remove CO2 from the atmosphere.  They also produce less non-carbon pollutants such as sulfuric acid, sulfuric oxides and nitric oxides.

The intrinsic value of liquid fuels is high for the transportation sector.  Liquid fuels are easily shipped, stored and transferred between storage and use facilities using existing infrastructure.  Liquid fuels are the densest form of conventional energy and are easily converted to both heat and mechanical motion.  For that reason, many are viable even with low EROEI numbers.  It would be extremely difficult to power a car or truck on solid bio mass such as wood or switch grass.

The down side, especially for corn based ethanol is it increases food costs for two reasons.  Corn used as feed grain is diverted to the energy sector, and farmers who might grow wheat or some other crop end up growing corn because the government subsides are better.

There is also some very serious questions about bio fuels being able to meet the demands for especially the transportation sector

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04 Nov 09 | Commentary, Environment | Comments (0)