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Solar Power Inc

By admin on August 15th, 2011

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In Washington, Connecticut, the John Door Nature Center recently installed a 35-kilowatt solar rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system. The John Door Nature Center is one of four locations for the Horace Mann School, an independent day school located in New York City serving students from second through twelfth grades.

At Horace Mann, students ranging from eight years of age to 18 years of age participate in outdoor and environmental education programs that last from a single day to more than a week. The John Dorr Lab is 265 acres in the towns of Washington and Bethlehem in Connecticut.

The solar array, comprised of 105 SunPower Corp. panels rated at 305 watts each, will provide about 25 percent of the electricity needed at the nature center building. The SunPower 305 and SunPower 315 panels are made up of 96 SunPower solar cells that, according to the company, deliver more electricity per square meter than conventional panels, with the 315 offering the industry's best conversion rate of 19.3 percent. SunPower, founded in 1985, is headquartered in San Jose, California and has offices throughout the world.

The system was installed by Sunlight Solar Energy, Inc., a solar electric and solar hot water installation contractor with four offices nationwide, one of them in Milford, Connecticut.

Sunlight recently installed the largest solar PV system in the Ivy League, an athletic conference consortium of eight private colleges and universities in the Northeastern United States comprised of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Ivy League installation, on top of Fisher Hall at Yale's Divinity School, is a 40-kilowatt, grid-tied system that will provide about 66 percent of the hall's peak energy demand. Sunlight Solar, an authorized dealer for SunPower products, recently announced its solar thermal division, which will provide solar hot water heating systems to businesses and homes in Connecticut.

Funding was provided via grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, or CCEF, which paid for about half the array.

The array was put in place not only to cut electricity costs but to serve as a ahands-ona demonstration model for a curriculum at the various Horace Mann campuses, where students from the fourth grade and up will learn about solar PV systems, their component parts, and the monitoring system which displays electricity generation in real time.

Glenn Sherratt, Director of the school's Nature Laboratory, also suggested that the monitor might be connected to another school in New York to allow those students access to the display and the solar education provided from it.

7 Responses to “Solar Power Inc”

1. wwwdavidchangcom says:

   August 17, 2011 at 4:40 AM

   Setting up a solar powered LED night light?
   Newbies with circuits, want to make a solar powered night light for my room. (inc. photoresistor)
2. cardentikr says:

   August 18, 2011 at 10:15 AM

   How much funding is needed for the 20k solar dish system being introduced in CA by stirling energy systems?
   Stirling Energy Systems Inc. introduced a new solar power energy concept using parabolic dishes to focus heat from the sun and then transfer the heat to a stirling engine to produce electricity ( Solar- Electric). They worked with DOE and Sandia National Labs, in testing the prototype. Finally now that all of the corrections and verifications have been made, they are making a major plant in California of about 20,000 dishes. Does anyone know the approximate funding that is needed for this project? And has there been any major problems with the system (such as power efficiency, cost to power generation efficiency, Anything)?
3. billc1121 says:

   August 18, 2011 at 7:15 PM

   I agree that a relay is useless. Everything needs to be very low power (i.e. use MOSFETs). Capacitors might work if you use the new “ultracapacitors”, or DLC’s, which have huge capacitance and tiny leakage.
   Since it’s solar powered, you’ll have a photocell. You can use this also as the light detector. When the photocell is producing current, charge your battery or ultracapacitor. When photocell voltage drops below some threshold, turn on the LED.
   A simple way to go would be to use two or three photocells in series, and run through a diode to your battery/ultracapacitor. THen, run the battery/capacitor positive terminal to the source of a p-channel MOSFET, and run the drain to your LED (with a series resistor to control brightness). Control the gate of the MOSFET with the positive terminal of the photocells.
   When the photocell voltage drops a few volts below the battery, the MOSFET will turn on, energizing the LED. When the photocell is .7V more than the battery voltage, the battery will charge.
4. Ziggy says:

   August 30, 2011 at 11:04 AM

   Domestic Solar Power – Is the cost worth it?
   I’ve been considering installing solar power to my home for a while now … and particularly with the gas and electricity price hikes we’ve hand and are going to have, in mind…..
   I’ve decided to change my boiler system to a combi because for me it’s not really cost effective to heat a tank of water that I’m not going to use every day … and I’ve been asking for quotes for photovoltaic electricity ….
   In principle it would seem to be a good idea to part-support my energy use by supplying my own…. but the costs are so expensive…. particularly for Photovoltaic (best quote I’ve had is £13,500 inc VAT, ex the Government grant of £2,500) – I’m wondering if an investment now is really worth it – or would I be better off leaving it for another couple of years in case installation prices come down?….
5. bbcranks says:

   August 30, 2011 at 6:22 PM

   Dirt.
6. Laurie c says:

   August 30, 2011 at 11:38 PM

   I can’t speak to your situation, because you live in the UK. I can however tell you here in the US it’s not worth it yet. I build custom homes and have installed solar a number of times. This is what I know for sure…The cost here is around $30,000 and it will take 15 yrs to crecoup the investment. By then the system will be out of date and in need of replacment (because technology will have advanced by then). Right now it’s more of a feel good, then a practical solution.

   Look into a tankless water heater to save on your gas bill. Insulate, insulate, insulate. Make sure your winodws are as efficiant as possible, and your appliances are energy star.
7. ps2754 says:

   August 31, 2011 at 9:48 PM

   What is your question?