Week 1 - Solar Team Progress
For our first week, we decided to dive into the various reports from the previous solar teams. Through this, we were able to get a feel of how much progress was made and to begin where they left off. We found many reports dating back to 2015 in the INIST archives and Superway Google Drive, however we settled on focusing on Eric Rosenfeld's final report from fall 2016. In this report Eric details the many calculations he has done, such as determining how much energy is required for each pod and how many solar panels would be required to power them. He also included several designs for the mounting and racking setup.
Overall, we plan to use this information as a baseline for where to begin, but also found that much of the information will need to be revisited. In the report, Eric uses SunEdison panels for his simulations, however this company has since gone bankrupt. In addition, his curved panel design has the PV panels mounted on the top, requiring a lift to access them. We plan on creating a technician's pod that will create repairs easier by removing the need for this lift. We will also design the racking system to be accessible from under the canopy, making everything accessible from the pod. We hope to create some designs that will meet all of these ideas.
In addition to the design, we will also be focusing on the power necessity of the whole system. We will be using programs like PVsyst and SAM in order to determine what panels we should use, as well as which micro-inverters and optimizers will work best for our needs. Ron Swenson provided us with a Tigo MMJ-ES50 Smart Curve Optimizer and an Apparent micro-inverter to start our calculations with, and we will see whether we can stick with these components or if there is a better set of products out on the market.
Below you will find our presentation that outlines our current ideas. We hope to receive more input that will point us in the right direction to take our designs to and soon come up with a final design.
Overall, we plan to use this information as a baseline for where to begin, but also found that much of the information will need to be revisited. In the report, Eric uses SunEdison panels for his simulations, however this company has since gone bankrupt. In addition, his curved panel design has the PV panels mounted on the top, requiring a lift to access them. We plan on creating a technician's pod that will create repairs easier by removing the need for this lift. We will also design the racking system to be accessible from under the canopy, making everything accessible from the pod. We hope to create some designs that will meet all of these ideas.
In addition to the design, we will also be focusing on the power necessity of the whole system. We will be using programs like PVsyst and SAM in order to determine what panels we should use, as well as which micro-inverters and optimizers will work best for our needs. Ron Swenson provided us with a Tigo MMJ-ES50 Smart Curve Optimizer and an Apparent micro-inverter to start our calculations with, and we will see whether we can stick with these components or if there is a better set of products out on the market.
Below you will find our presentation that outlines our current ideas. We hope to receive more input that will point us in the right direction to take our designs to and soon come up with a final design.
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