At the start of the 3rd International Floating Solar Symposium (IFSS) held at the Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) this week, the World Bank Group, ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program), and SERIS (Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore) launched the latest “2019. Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Handbook For Practitioners” report, now billed as a handbook and the definitive guide on every aspect of floating solar PV systems along with the above infographic poster. The full report can be downloaded from ESMAP here.

The Floating Solar Handbook was launched in a symbolic handoff between ESMAP Program Manager Mr. Rohit Khanna, and SERIS Deputy CEO Dr. Thomas Reindl.

The Floating Solar Handbook is oriented to providing Floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) project stakeholders: developers, utilities, contractors, investors, regulators, and decision makers, with practical guidelines on the technology applied to inland water bodies and near shore coastal applications.

Despite the megawatts and gigawatts of Floating Solar interest, announcements, and projects, FPV lacks a robust track record or even longer-term performance data. Beyond the complexity involved with FPV system design, construction, and operations and maintenance upon the water, further studies are required to understand the environmental impact and long-term performance risks involved with FPV systems.

While contemplating FPV, I was reminded of the Late Show with David Letterman segment, “Will it Float?” So does a typical framed, backsheet PV module sink or float?

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201 clouds on a sunny day

I landed at SPI 2017 without having been to a solar tradeshow since last year’s event. As a result, I was greeted by a plethora of solar cell and module technologies which all seemed new to me.

In photos, here is a quick view of some companies, products, or both I found interesting wandering around the Exhibition.

AlsoEnergy demoed operations monitoring with integrated weather across multiple displays.

CertainTeed Saint-Gobain had their rather conventional Apollo Tile II solution on display using monocrystalline silicon solar cells.

GCL System Integration Technology Co. Ltd jumped on the oversized module bandwagon with the GCL-P6/96, a 96 cell, 450W (Watt) beast weighing 36.5kg (kilogram) or ~80.5 pounds. Can two installers lift these modules all day?

Hanergy Holding Group had a pavilion featuring their portfolio of thin film companies. MiaSolé featured the Hantile as shown. Hantile is only certified for China so far sans rating label, and a spec sheet was unavailable.

Could this non-working Alta Devices concept unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) fly?

i-Solar Energy has a mounting solution for new and retrofitting insulated roofs.

Is this the Mercedes-Benz of storage? Why does it use an Infineon TriCore microcontroller!

Solaria had the PowerXT rooftop modules attracting due attention at their stand. Cutting the cells with custom metallization into strips, 67 conventional solar cells are squeezed into a 60 cell module footprint.

Soliculture has developed a next generation PV (photovoltaic) backsheet, SL300, using a single layer, 300um (micron) advance copolymer with clear and white options as part of the US Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot program.

Sun Bandit eschews solar thermal to simplify hot water generation with solar PV.

I saw this SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) P-17 Performance Series (P-Series) Commercial Solar Panel at the Schletter stand. The SunPower P-Series and Solaria PowerXT technologies look very similar while each company claims to have significant IP (Intellectual Property) backing their approach.

Sunpreme debuted the Maxima HxB series modules featuring a BiFacial, half cell design delivering up to 400W, 440W with a 10% backside Bifacial boost, and checking the 1500VDC (Volts Direct Current) maximum system voltage box.

Yuneec had drone solutions for automated, aerial inspections of PV installations using cameras and thermal imaging free of the cyber risks plaguing DJI.

Leaving Las Vegas, Solar Power International is returning to Anaheim, California USA, next year from September 24-27, 2018. I recall getting to and from the airport was a bit of a hassle.

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Eclipse Over Clemson

I began thinking about experiencing the Great American Eclipse at least a year ago with tentative plans to witness the celestial event in Idaho. As early as March, I began looking for solar glasses though they hadn’t even landed yet in specialty retail.

Fast forward to July, as I was contemplating my eclipse plans, a fantastic opportunity for travel to Vietnam presented itself, and I could not say no! After all, I would still have two (2) weeks left before the Total Eclipse. However, upon my return from the month long Vietnam visit, I found myself sick with the flu. Though I tend to be healthy, the flu is my kryptonite, and I can take weeks to recover.

With luck or other cosmic forces at work, I began to improve before the first flu week was over and scrambled to develop an alternative plan for Total Solar Eclipse success. After benign neglect, I raced to find solar eclipse glasses and decided to over gear by purchasing both solar binoculars and, on backorder, solar glasses. I apologize for the plug, however, B&H Photo Video came through and shipped the items separately, and the solar glasses arrived overnight four (4) days before the event.

Meanwhile, I was scouring the maps at the NASA Total Eclipse website looking for the best viewing locations along the path of totality within a day or two drive from New Jersey. Though I first focused on Kentucky and Tennessee, my interest turned to South Carolina as I discovered Charlotte, North Carolina, was a reasonable travel gateway near totality but not within the path. At the time, I did not realize South Carolina had the largest U.S. population closest to the path of totality: some 94,800,000 million people with as many as 2,188,000 million estimated visitors!

After selecting potential viewing locations, my attention turned to the weather forecasts in the days before the Monday, August 21, 2017, event. The South Carolina forecasts were in constant flux around the time of the eclipse, but patterns emerged on Friday and Saturday before my Sunday dash to Charlotte. Eastern South Carolina, Charleston in particular, looked very unfavorable for eclipse viewing with clouds and possible thundershowers. As I looked west, Clemson, Anderson, and Greenwood had sunny mornings with afternoon clouds or thunderstorms possible later in the day, forecasts pleasing to an optimist. As a backup, I could instead drive to the western edge of North Carolina, also in the totality path.

Execution is everything, and a key eclipse theme emerged before Sunday noon driving down to Charlotte: horrendous traffic! While I departed before dawn, I began to encounter severe traffic west of Washington, DC, along Interstate 66. Whether summer, weekend, campus, eclipse traffic, or all combined, the nominal nine (9) hour drive extended to over twelve (12) hours using a route I thought would be less popular. Taking the day’s travails to heart, I decided to begin travel on eclipse Monday at 4:00am and settled on Clemson University as my goal after yet another weather review.

Bleary eyed, I started even earlier and arrived in Clemson, South Carolina, by 6:00am with minimal traffic. Following invigorating coffee and breakfast, I headed to Clemson University to access the parking situation. Clemson University was a NASA Official Event Location for the eclipse smack on the line of maximum totality. Whether good old southern hospitality or honed experience from years of Tigers football, “Eclipse Over Clemson” day visitors were welcomed as promised with free parking, free admission, and free eclipse glasses not to mention a number of free commemorative T-shirts all on the orientation day for the Clemson Class of 2021.

The star of the day, our Sun, rose just before 7:00am in clear skies promising an excellent event day. With six (6) hours to kill before the eclipse began, I did eventually land on the edge of the south lawn in the main viewing area. Passing cumulus clouds obscured the Sun on occasion until the eclipse began at 1:08pm. As others claimed to see the first edge of the moon partial eclipsing the Sun with solar glasses, I had to resort to solar binoculars to observe the same. As the eclipse advanced, I alternated between the solar glasses and binoculars to observe the progress. Using a spare set of solar glasses as a filter, I tried to take photos with my iPhone and Canon G7 X. Unprompted, a Good Samaritan offered to loan me a spare camera filter for eclipse photography. Thank you! However, while I desired a keepsake photo, I was immersed in the firsthand total eclipse experience.

Occasional clouds blocked the Sun as the eclipse progressed to totality. I did manage to get some decent shots of the progress. The almost 1.5 hours from the start of the eclipse until totality seemed to take a while and pass quickly at the same time; I stood through the duration without noticing. As totality approached at 2:37pm, the surroundings became perceptibly darker. As I saw the final thin crescent of the Sun, I missed the trick to cover the Sun with a thumb and remove the solar glasses (see The Solar Eclipse Experience) and did not observe the Emerging Corona or the Diamond Ring. In fact, as totality began, I could not even see the corona until I removed my solar glasses. At this point, I took a few photos sans filter and was lucky to snap the above image.

At Clemson, the duration of totality was 2 minutes and 35 seconds, affording precious moments to look around and observe. During totality, the temperature cooled noticeably, welcome relief from a hot and humid day in South Carolina. Background noise, both from insects and animals along with humans, were quiet, quieter, or speechless. Per the inset photo, I saw the gorgeous 360° sunrise/sunset horizon glow without even knowing about it. I knew to look for bright planets and stars during totality, but only Venus was visible, perhaps because of the scattered clouds which blessed us by not interfering with the main event.

Near the end of totality, to my neighbors I said: “I hope the Sun comes back now.” They didn’t find this amusing; I suppose they though I was uneducated or a Flat Earther or something. I did have a real, nagging, primitive fear about this rather unrealistic possibility. As Totality’s Finale was imminent, I was anxious to replace my solar glasses, repeating my error and missing the Diamond Ring once again. With the passage of totality, most of the 20000 person crowd on Clemson University’s south lawn packed up and tried to beat the traffic back home. I returned the camera filter and stole glances of the returning Sun through solar glasses as I planned my own exit. I was mindful to take the below photo of the odd multi-shadows cast by tree leaves.

I opted to wait a while, hoping the post-eclipse traffic would dissipate. It didn’t. The 143 mile drive back to Charlotte took over six (6) hours with Interstate 85 mimicking a parking lot. The post-eclipse traffic hangover extended to Tuesday as my journey home lasted over thirteen (13) hours. And yet, even with the Eclipocalypse traffic nightmare, the Total Solar Eclipse was a once in a lifetime, priceless experience. So much so, I plan to witness one again! While I hope to experience the next U.S. Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024, the next Total Solar Eclipse is on July 2, 2019, and visible in parts of Chile and Argentina in South America. I think I’ve caught the Eclipse Chaser bug!

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I did my best to scour CES Tech West and Tech East for the top solar, photovoltaic, or related ecosystem products and services.

JETSTREAM ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
In the back of the Sands Expo (CES Tech West), Jetstream was featuring the NewGen solar electric generating system for the 2017 introductory special price of $9,999 before taking the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and capable of generating 3.5kWh (kiloWatt-hours) of electricity per hour of sunlight for the seven (7) module configuration. The CPV (Concentrating PhotoVoltaic) system includes a dual-axis tracker and integrated inverter in the “brain box”. Initial NewGen production of 500 units is slated for the 275 investors in the company. Jetstream has production capacity of 1000 units per month located in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA, and has plans for further expansion. Jetstream will begin taking deposits for NewGen systems on February 1, 2017. A system specification was not yet available, and the display unit was not representative of production. Jetstream CEO Henry Herman showed me the CPV module assembly, but I didn’t get a photo.

Sunflare Inc.
When I saw the flexible module in the Sunflare booth at CES 2017, I thought it was using thin silicon solar cells. Instead, Sunflare’s Capture4 technology is based on CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenium) manufactured on a cell by cell basis analogous to crystalline silicon. Sunflare told me they had 5MW (MegaWatt) of production capacity ramping since last month, module aperture efficiency of about 15%, and initial pricing in the $2.50 to 4.00 per Watt range. Sunflare is headquartered in the United States, manufactures in China, and has a Swedish technology partner. The evidence points to Midsummer AB as the production equipment supplier.

SunCulture Solar Inc.
Well, I got to see SolPad for the first time, and this was another case of just walking by the booth by accident. I have no doubt SolPad Mobile is a fantastic product! The integrated solar cells are gorgeous and must be sourced from SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR)? SunCulture explained to me how the unit does not run afoul of net metering rules when plugged in by only injecting power into your home to match consumption by connected SolControl smart plug units. Already at a premium, the SolPad Mobile has a limited quantity introductory price of $1395 for May 1, 2017, preorders, while the unit has a lackluster 1 year warranty.

I still cannot get onboard with the rooftop SolPad Home product integrating a battery. The SolPad Home warranty of 25 years for the PV module plus inverter and 10 years for the solid-state battery of undisclosed origin only reinforces my perception.

Argil, Inc.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Damoder Reddy of Solexant fame, Argil has been developing an electrochromic (EC) film for automotive, architectural, and wearable applications. Argil’s EC smart film has fast switching speed at low voltage (<1.5 Volts) with low haze, excellent optical state memory, and low power consumption (<0.1 Watts per square meter). Argil told me the EC film is bi-stable and can retain the optical state for days without power consumption until switched again. Argil has an exclusive license to the technology developed by an unnamed university and has generated new patents related to materials and process technologies. Though I did not see a demo, Argil has EC samples, and a datasheet is available by request.

LANCEY Energy Storage
LANCEY has developed a connected, battery powered electric space heater intended to charge during off peak times and heat using the battery when electricity prices peak. By just plugging into an outlet, the LANCEY space heater is perfect for retrofits and utilizes advanced heating technologies, a smart phone app, and user detection to minimize electric bills. Looking like it belongs in an IKEA showroom, LANCEY is expected to enter volume production in 2H2017 with an estimated €1000 per unit price.

In future products, LANCEY would like a direct connection to solar generated DC power to avoid AC to DC conversion losses.

iPowerUp
At the CES Smart Energy Marketplace presented by Solar Power International, iPowerUp was showing the svelte iPhone6/6S/7 Fusion Solar case with an integrated 2500mAh (milliamp-hour) Li-Polymer (lithium ion polymer) battery. The dual solar panels can charge up to 500mA (milliamps) per hour using what I learned were SunPower monocrystalline solar cells cut into rectangles! I found the case to be lightweight and not too bulky for both the battery and the solar. The iPhone 6/6S version is retail priced at $89.95 while the iPhone 7 model is $99.95.

PowerFilm Solar Inc.
Camped at CES Tech East, PowerFilm was featuring the new LightSaver Line of solar chargers with integrated Li-Ion (lithium ion) battery, a Micro USB input for pre-charging, and a USB output to charge devices. The thin film amorphous silicon solar panel is military grade and has superior low light performance and less temperature sensitivity. The midrange LightSaver M-2 has a $149.99 MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price), weighs less than 5 ounces (~142 grams) with a 3200mAh battery, and can be fully charged in 6-8 hours. The LightSaver M-2 will disappear inside your hiking backpack.

Ampd Energy
As a CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Tech For A Better World category, the Ampd Silo is a 16.8kWh (kiloWatt-hour) Energy Storage Backup System targeting renewable energy installations, backup power for buildings, and grid-wide load leveling. Packed with technology and features, up to four (4) Ampd Silos can be daisy chained in a parallel (N+X) configuration for backup power hungry applications. Each Ampd Silo contains eight (8) battery modules fused at both the module and the individual battery level; Ampd claims the Silo is the only Energy Storage Backup System in Asia to obtain UL9540 certification. The Ampd Silo is expected to have an $8800 MSRP and be warrantied for 5 years or 2000 charge cycles at which point the batteries should retain 70% of their original capacity. Ampd Silo production is planned to start in March or April 2017 with expected cumulative production of 22MWh (MegaWatt-hours) this year. Ampd is focusing their sales efforts on Southeast Asia and India with emphasis on Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Vietnam.

SolarGaps Inc.
SolarGaps touts the world’s first solar smart blind that can track the sun and generate 100 Watt-hours of electricity per square meter. SolarGaps has an integrated inverter and, per the company, can simply be plugged into an outlet for immediate use. SolarGaps again uses SunPower solar cells though they are investigating colors besides black and options to customize the backside of the blind. SolarGaps is expected to be priced between $480 to $890 per square meter and will launch a Kickstarter campaign next month to finance full-scale production.

Autel Robotics
Later this year, Autel Robotics plans to offer a version of the X-Star series drones with a FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR) Duo Module option for thermal and visible light imaging and recording. The FLIR combo imager with a drone is destined to become a low cost workhorse for aerial solar installation inspections. At higher cost, the FLIR Duo R Module adds radiometric calibrated temperature measurement capabilities to home in on hot spots.

CES needs to improve the Exhibitor search feature on both the website and app to help find relevant keywords. Searching for “solar” and “photovoltaic” were almost useless in finding all the relevant exhibitors.

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During the third week of November, Alta Devices was making the Silicon Valley event rounds at Drone World Expo and the IDTechEx Show! USA 2016. I spoke with Alta folks staffing the booths at both expos to get the latest on the company.

Alta Devices has uncontested record efficiency single and dual junction gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells coupled with the lowest weight per unit area by virtue of being a thin film. Unencapsulated, crystalline substrate, multijunction GaAs solar cells with greater efficiency are at least four (4) times heavier. Like other GaAs solar cells, Alta Devices products have very low temperature coefficients and are somewhat insensitive to the sunlight angle of incidence.

As I heard earlier this year, Alta Devices prices a one (1) Watt series connection of five (5) thin film, single junction, gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells at $100 or $100 per Watt. This may be single unit list pricing or require a 5000 cell minimum order quantity. Per “How Solar Can Keep a Drone Flying All Day” by Katie Fehrenbacher at Fortune this September:

Alta Devices’ solar film costs in the range of $50 to $100 per watt, says Kapusta.

Rich Kapusta is the Alta Devices Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Sales.

While Alta also offers single and half cells, an array can be configured with a matrix series and parallel arrangement of solar cells to meet application requirements for voltage, current, power, and shape. Single cells can be stacked in series with conductive epoxy, and a busbar is added to complete parallel connections.

If you must have one, the Analog Devices, Inc. energy harvester ADP5090-2 Evaluation Board ships with a single 0.22 Watt Alta Devices solar cell for $49.

I was also told Alta Devices is in the process of ramping annual cell production capacity to 3 Mu (million units). In 2016, Alta expects ~100 kW (kiloWatt) of production, followed by about ~500 kW in 2017. Longer term, Alta Devices and parent company, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd (HKG:0566), are planning the next factory expansion for around 2019, location to be determined. Though China is preferred, a U.S. factory is at least more plausible under a President Trump administration.

At the Drone World Expo, C-Astral Aerospace Ltd. displayed their latest UAV, the Bramor ppX-LRS (long range solar). Looking at the inset photo, I thought this might be a prototype unit. While no connection cables were visible, the solar cells were not attached or laminated flush to the wings.

In response to my questions about the Bramor ppX-LRS unit and the additional flight time with the Alta Devices solar cells, a C-Astral spokesperson said:

So the Bramor ppX-LRS is still in the stage of testing, as we need more sunlight directly to test it properly, we are waiting for the summer season. Due to this we assume it will be available for production in Summer 2017, end of Q2.

About the endurance please read the Press Release Alta Devices did around the Commercial UAV Expo 2016: http://www.altadevices.com/altas-solar-technology-power-c-astrals-next-generation-uavs/. Based on their tests we can achieve the additional endurance for up to 2 hours.

The standard C-Astral Bramor ppX UAV is specified with an endurance of up to 3.5 hours while the Bramor ppX-LRS with Alta Devices solar is supposed to increase flight time up to 5.5 hours.

From my photo analysis of the LRS version unit, I observe fourteen (14) strings with sixteen (16) solar cells each for a total of 224 cells. Since the UAV’s lithium ion polymer (LiPo) battery voltage is not disclosed, there is insufficient information to determine the parallel arrangement of the strings. However, my best guess is the seven (7) strings on each wing are connected in parallel because of the two, two, and three string matrix arrangement, and, if a higher voltage is required, the strings from each wing are then connected in series instead of in parallel.

While the solar cell Watt-peak (Wp) varies in the Alta Devices Technology Performance Brief with the encapsulation material, settling on 0.2 Wp per cell results in 44.8 Wp for both wings of the Bramor ppX-LRS. Further, assuming a strong sunny day without clouds, some 246.4 Watt-hours (Wh) could be generated over 5.5 hours. Converting the above Wh peak energy to milliamp-hours (mAh) using common LiPo battery voltages of 11.1 Volts (V) and 22.2 V, results in about 22000 mAh and 11000 mAh respectively, similar to standard LiPo battery sizes. Therefore, under the best solar insolation conditions, the Alta Devices solar array on the Bramor ppX-LRS could extend battery life by over 50 percent, in effect adding a battery with “less than two ounces of weight” plus the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and a charge controller.

When I asked about the real world performance of the Bramor ppX-LRS at the Drone World Expo, C-Astral expected average flight times to increase by about 1 hour under nominal solar conditions.

Unlike small UAVs, high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAVs are designed to operate above 50000 feet (~15.2 kilometers) for extended periods of time, and HALE UAVs can expect consistent Air Mass Zero (AM0) solar spectral irradiance on the order of the solar constant. Alta Devices has said they are working with mostly commercial HALE UAV customers and details the challenges of this environment in the white paper, “Selecting Solar for High Altitude Long Endurance Aircraft”. “Top 8 Solar Powered Drone (UAV) Developing Companies” by Dricus at Sinovoltaics Group details solar powered HALE UAV efforts by Airbus, Google, and Facebook among others.

At the IDTechEx Show! USA 2016, Alta Devices also presented a Hanergy concept EV (Electric Vehicle) that might go a week without recharging given an average 30 mile (~48 kilometer) commute per day. Well, it looks as though this vision will have to wait until 2021 or 2022 given the following.

At the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA) 2015 Annual Meeting and Exposition Innovators Corner (YouTube video), Mr. Kapusta said:

As our price comes down we start to go after more of these markets, and it won’t be long, 5 – 6 years from now, that we’ll be in the single digit dollars per watt price point which makes this very compelling for all those things that we just talked about.

Also, it does not appear this build out, “Hanergy TF building 10MW R&D and pilot line for Alta Devices GaAs solar cells”, ever occurred in China, instead any first phase three (3) MegaWatt (MW) capacity investment was directed to the US factory location in Sunnyvale, California USA.

Alta Devices executive management is flying low under my questions and did not acknowledge or respond to them for this post.

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I bumped into Fujikura Ltd. at the IDTechEx Show Demonstration Street hosted in Santa Clara, California USA a few weeks ago. Fujikura had single, four (4), and eight (8) cell DSC modules on display optimized for indoor applications.

As discussed in the paper, “Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell for Energy Harvesting Applications” by Nobuo Tanabe, Fujikura has been working to improve Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSC) for a number of years targeting indoor and outdoor energy harvesting applications such as sensor nodes.

For outdoor use, Fujikura focused on sealing technologies to prevent evaporation of the electrolyte and block moisture intrusion resulting in DSC modules passing several IEC 61646 endurance tests.

As shown below in Figure 2 from the Fujikura paper, the DSC conversion efficiency increases under low light conditions versus multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells, and, per Figure 3, DSC conversion efficiency is almost flat regardless of the incident light angle. Therefore, DSC powered IoT sensor nodes can be positioned outdoors to maximize the application benefit without much regard for the DSC module’s sun orientation.

To optimize for indoor use, Fujikura developed technologies to match DSC spectral sensitivity to indoor fluorescent and LED lights, designed for electrode conformation, and prepared an electrolyte to significantly decrease leakage current. After the optimizations, the indoor DSC achieved over 20% conversion efficiency under 1000 lux illuminance outperforming competing amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells by almost two times in the same conditions. In this case, DSC powered IoT sensor nodes can operate under dim indoor light conditions typical of a warehouse.

By the numbers
Fujikura is producing about two thousand (2000) FDSC-FSC1G 180uW 4 (cell) series DSC modules per month and plans to increase production in 2017 up to 10000 modules per month depending on demand. The DSCs are manufactured with a low energy process based on screen printing using nontoxic materials.

Fujikura said the DSCs are about 5mm thick now, and 2.5mm thick DSCs are under development for 2017 using materials from Fujikura Kasei Co., Ltd. Single cell modules are expected to be available in 2Q17 featuring 13% more power from a larger cell aperture area with the same efficiency. 2.5mm versions of the 4 cell and 8 cell modules are expected in 2H17.

Current 4 series module list pricing is less than $30 in 1000 unit quantities, and, in 2017, Fujikura is targeting less than $17 per unit depending on volume.

Degradation and product warranty terms are not indicated in the DSC brochure.
Fujikura just states the DSCs are IEC 61646 compliant. I suggest contacting Fujikura for further product details, mechanical drawings, and reliability data.

Fujikara also offers DSC Power Modules integrating the DSC module, an energy harvester PMIC (Power Management IC), and a secondary cell to jumpstart IoT designs. Otherwise, there is a list of recommended companion PMICs for the Maker types.

I still feel as though I have not woken up from a nightmare for the past few weeks. No such luck though.

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Edisun Microgrids, Inc., an Idealab company, launched the PV Booster dual-axis tracker solution for commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftops in advance of Solar Power International (SPI 2016).  Edisun’s basic PV value proposition is to “Boost Project Economics by 20%”.  On the first day of SPI, I happened upon the PV Booster booth only to find Edisun Microgrids CEO and Idealab founder Bill Gross pitching the technology and product.

After visiting the booth a few times and reviewing the PV Booster Case Studies, I submitted the below questions to Edisun, and they were kind enough to respond over the weekend after SPI. Here is the dialog in question and answer format with the only edits to correct my “dual-axis” and “single-axis” PV tracker jargon.

Q: Why dual-axis instead of single-axis tracking?

Edisun: We use a full dual-axis tracker instead of single-axis to capture the maximum boost in annual power by adding the second axis.

The reason we can do this is we have solved for the challenges posed by the wind. A single-axis tracker pivots the panels in the center so they can track East and West for early morning and late afternoon boost. However, that means the panel is up high in the wind stream, and would not be able to survive a rooftop mount situation because of the torque-load placed on the roof. On the ground, that’s easy since it’s solved by putting a pole deep into the ground. On the roof, that deep anchoring is not possible, and the roof is not strong enough to handle that. As for the second axis on the ground, if conventional trackers were to add the second axis it would have to move the massive structure altitudinally and economics would not pencil out.

We invented a new method of making a dual-axis tracker that pivots the panel from the FRONT edge and not from the center.  That means PV Booster captures the altitude changes of the sun PLUS retracts the module to even lower on the roof than a stationary 10-degree rack.

So, the second axis not ONLY gives a boost in annual energy, but it makes the commercial rooftop trackers possible for the first time because we can retract completely flat in winds above 50 mph.

Q: How does PV Booster become bankable?

Edisun: PV Booster will be securing independent third-party engineering and performance verifications.  For our first customers we will work with a partner or provide direct project finance so that our customers will pay via PPA and not take any risk on our product.

Q: What is the PV Booster warranty? As a startup with a limited track record, how do you guarantee spares and qualified maintenance for 20-25 years?

Edisun: 10 year with extended warranty available. We plan to back the warranty as needed with third-party warranty insurance.

Q: What is the basis for the O&M (Operations and Maintenance) PV Booster delta of $7.5/kWp?

Edisun: We have put great engineering effort into creating O&M that approaches fixed-tilt. First, our system has fully distributed controls, so there is no single point of failure. Unlike other tracking systems that gang 100’s or sometimes even 1000’s of panels together, we have a separate microprocessor, sensor, and controls for EACH PV panel, so that out of a thousand panels, if one or two fail, then the other 998 will work perfectly and unaffected. In addition, if 2 out of 1,000 fail, those two panels still produce power, just not with the 31% annual boost. Since our warranty covers that loss in energy production, there should be no O&M to fix those two units, because our warranty will pay out those funds.

To further increase reliability we have eliminated the two things that fail the most in trackers – gearboxes and motor brushes. We designed a unique drive that is direct drive (the only tracker in the world with no gearbox) and with brushless servo motors (no brushes to wear out). Our motors are rated for well over 1 billion cycles, which would represent 1000’s of years of PV Booster operation. The motors and mechanisms have been tested in harsh environmental chambers for more than 30+ years of lifetime with no failures.

As a result, our testing shows that there will be minimal difference in O&M versus fixed-tilt. That said, in order to be conservative in our case studies, we added 50% to typical O&M costs as a reserve.

Q: Is reliability data available? What failures have been observed during development?

Edisun: We have more than 1,000,000 tracking hours tested so far with no failures.  We have not yet seen a mechanical, electrical, or wear failure of any kind in all of our testing to date.

Q: I observed the cabling to be a potential point of failure.

Edisun: PV Booster’s cabling approach is similar to conventional fixed-tilt systems. Cabling and connector vendors are all UL approved.

The tracker movement flexes the cable bundle +/- 90 degrees once per day. We have run tests of more than 50 years of cable flexing with no wear or degradation, because we have a radius of curvature of the bundle that is well below the stress point of the wires.

Q: From the case studies, the energy density of PV Booster per roof area is lower than fixed. What inputs do you have from local governments nationwide about added PV Booster design constraints for permitting?

Edisun: Our energy density on rooftops is approximately 33% less than more densely packed PV panels on fixed racks. However, we more than make up for that with the superior economics. Because of the spacing, we have a lighter load on rooftops of only about 2 pounds per square foot before ballast.

Our product must comply with the same PV standards (UL and ASCE in the U.S.) and must be installed to local building and fire codes, which we do.

Q: Does PV Booster stow itself flat if winds are excessive?

Edisun: Yes, PV Booster stows automatically when the wind is above 50 mph and has a backup system for doing so.

Q: How does PV Booster wake up in the morning?

Edisun: PV Booster wakes up automatically in the morning based on a light sensor in each unit that automatically detects when the morning light is sufficient. (These sensors keep each module optimally pointed at the sun all day.)

Q: Is it Grid connected or does it begin operation when the morning sun is sufficient?

Edisun: PV Booster is grid connected, but also has its own integrated UPS to continue tracking or to stow if the grid fails. In addition, if a tracker loses connectivity it regresses to a stowed position until connectivity is restored. (Note that it would still produce as-if it were a flat PV panel.)
PV Booster provides tangible cost savings to C&I customers subject to Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity rates by generating more power during peak rate periods especially at the end of the normal workday. However, C&I customers seeking to maximize rooftop MegaWatt-hour (MWh) power generation regardless of timing might prefer to stick with a fixed tilt system.

Going beyond the apples to apples PV Booster Case Studies, I would recommend using higher efficiency monocrystalline PV modules and DC optimizers with PV Booster. Besides attracting dirt and debris, roofs are a favorite hangout for birds and their droppings.

I should have posted this last Sunday, but I was trying for a better placement.

The post Does your Commercial Rooftop Project need a PV Booster? first appeared on GUNTHER Portfolio.

Original article: Does your Commercial Rooftop Project need a PV Booster?

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I must confess. I haven’t written a Blog post in almost two (2) years!
I needed to publish on SPI 2016 day one, so I decided to post a photo slideshow of products and exhibitors I noticed walking around the three (3) exhibit halls: Westgate Hotel – Paradise Event Center, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) – North Hall, and the Smart Energy Microgrid Pavilion located outside the LVCC. Here is my Photobucket Slideshow.

I expected writing again would be the hardest part of rebooting the Blog.
I was wrong.
Almost my entire Blogging tool chain has required updating and prevented me from posting last week. Google Picasa is one of those tools impacted by deprecation and migration to the defeatured Google Photos. Photobucket is one of the few online photo sharing services offering the ability to embed a Slideshow in a website or Blog. However, Photobucket lacks captions for slideshows though there are titles. But album photos cannot be reordered.

I should have known The Cloud would be the problem and not the solution!

The post Solar Power International 2016 Exhibition Photos first appeared on GUNTHER Portfolio.

Original article: Solar Power International 2016 Exhibition Photos

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From CPV USA 2012 | PV Insider

As I was reviewing my blog archive for The Apple of SunPower’s C7 post, I realized the project announced in “Tucson Electric Power Plans 6-Megawatt SunPower C7 Tracker System” never had a matching project completion press release.

At the SunPower C7 Tracker Update at CPV USA 2012, SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) said the then 7 MegaWatt-peak (MWp) Low Concentration PhotoVoltaic (LCPV) project for Tucson Electric Power (TEP) would begin construction in the first half of 2013 and was scheduled for completion by 4Q 2013. TEP is still a subsidiary of UNS Energy Corporation though Fortis Inc. (TSE:FTS) completed the acquisition of UNS Energy last month.

When I asked if the TEP C7 project had ever been completed, SunPower said:

This project has changed locations and as a result we had to recomplete the permitting process, which delayed the project schedule. We anticipate that we will break ground soon.

Of course, I also asked Tucson Electric Power about the C7 Tracker project. The TEP spokesperson said:

The SunPower system is on track for completion in December 2014.

The project is being built near TEP’s Springerville Generating Station in Springerville, Arizona, adjacent to a 6.4 MW fixed PV array already operating on that site. The LCPV portion represents about 7.5 MW(dc). The remaining 2.5 MW(dc) will be built from SunPower T-5 modules, ground mounted.

I’m unclear on SunPower T5 Solar Roof Tile modules being ground mounted, so I’ll guess these are SunPower modules mounted on single axis T0 trackers?

Earlier the year, TEP presented “Utility Scale Renewables and Distributed Generation” at the 2014 UNS IRP Workshop, and the 10 MW SunPower Fixed/LCPV project was slated for an Oct 1, 2014, Expected In-Service Date.

So what caused a three (3) month project delay since April: permitting issues or C7 modular receiver availability or both?

The post Tucson Electric Power’s C7 Tracker Project Update first appeared on GUNTHER Portfolio.

Original article: Tucson Electric Power’s C7 Tracker Project Update

©2026 GUNTHER Portfolio. All Rights Reserved.

Apple’s Fort Churchill Solar Project.

From Fort Churchill Solar Project

So what’s happened at the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Fort Churchill Solar project since the Earth Day fanfare of the WIRED exclusive: “Apple Aims to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint With New Data Centers” by Steven Levy?

On a cloudy day visit last month, I observed only a single SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) C7 Tracker with installed modular receivers (modules) out of as many as sixteen (16) trackers per the WIRED post describing “sixteen rows”. The construction office buildings and other obstructions prevented me from making an accurate count of the trackers. Per the inset photos and Picasa slideshow, only the eastern most tracker had modules, and none of the trackers were following the sun!

From Fort Churchill Solar Project

Apple did not even acknowledge questions from this niche Blogger about the project. In response to my question on the current status of the Fort Churchill Solar project, SunPower said:

SunPower has not publicly disclosed this project and therefore has no comment on the status.

I guess this quote in the WIRED post was not official:

“It’s the latest and greatest,” says Rob Wilson, the project manager for SunPower, the contractor that’s building it for Apple.

Maybe SunPower should also consider not having so much official looking signage at the project? However, there is no way to avoid the public Lyon County Planning Commission Meeting minutes (September 2013, October 2013) when applying for a special use permit for the Fort Churchill Solar Energy Project.

From Fort Churchill Solar Project

As always, without facts, I will speculate. The lone C7 Tracker with modules may have been stowed because of the clouds from the impending thunderstorms reducing sunlight below some minimum operating threshold. Otherwise, the test phase of the project may have already been concluded with either success or failure.

From Fort Churchill Solar Project

Why haven’t all the trackers been populated with modules? This appears to be the normal C7 Tracker project situation as seen before at the 1.1 MegaWatt-peak (MWp) C7 Tracker project implementation on the Arizona State University (ASU) Polytechnic campus. Perhaps all of the C7 modular receivers have been allocated to the large projects in Inner Mongolia, China, or the supply of high-efficiency SunPower Maxeon solar cells are being directed to more profitable geographies and market segments? I presume SunPower can also manufacture C7 modular receivers outside of China?

C7 Tracker Changes
Reviewing the photos, I noticed the C7 Trackers at Fort Churchill had twenty-five (25) sections compared to the nineteen (19) sections at the ASU Polytechnic campus.

From Fort Churchill Solar Project

I asked SunPower if a current C7 Tracker datasheet was available since the old one online does not appear to match recent field deployments. SunPower said:

SunPower is currently installing its second-generation SunPower C7 Tracker, which has improvements in efficiency over the Gen 1 design. We have not yet released an updated data sheet as engineering details are part of project level specifications and engineering drawings.

Since my inquiry, the online C7 Tracker datasheet has disappeared.

NV Energy’s Role
I have seen different descriptions of the role of NV Energy, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, itself a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), in the Fort Churchill Solar project ranging from partnership to co-developer. An NV Energy spokesperson said:

NV Energy is simply the electric utility serving Apple in northern Nevada. Their project is being constructed next to our Fort Churchill Generating Station, and Apple is building the solar facility as part of northern Nevada’s Green Energy Choice Program approved by state utility regulators in 2013. This optional tariff gives customers the ability to use more renewable energy as long as the option does not shift additional costs to other customers. NV Energy will be purchasing the power generated by the new plant, and providing that power to Apple.

Upon further review, I’m unconvinced any C7 modular receivers are visible in the WIRED photos embedded in the Earth Day post.

It’s been eight (8) months since my last Blog post, and future posts will be on haphazard basis at best. And though I will continue to tweet, I believe the twitter Weekly Updates now have marginal value, and I may discontinue them.

(Full disclosure: I own some shares of AAPL stock.)

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Original article: The Apple of SunPower’s C7

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