Solar: Installation Angles
Creating happy customers – John Williams of Solar Panels Plus
has written two Photovoltaics World articles on making customers happy
– on setting
& managing customer expectations and system
design considerations.
Neighborhood solar – one new idea: To create “an architectural
feature out of a concentrated solar tower. Capable of producing 10 to 100 mW
of power, the plant can be used for communities, shopping centers, or any central
gathering place.” From: Phoenix
Business Journal.
Quanta on the job – Potelco (a unit of Quanta Services) will
be “equity partner and contractor” on design and construction of a PV project
to be located 90 miles east of Seattle, on the Teanaway Solar Reserve. Release.
The thing is supposed to be 75 mW, which would make it the Pacific Northwest’s
largest solar PV installation.
Solar & housing – EcoHome magazine covered
a session on solar PV at the International Builder’s Show. One piece of advice:
“Don’t install PV until you’ve tackled the performance of the rest of the house
. . . .’Make energy efficiency your goal first’.”
Solutions come in many flavors – a 1,200-word article
in the Tribune Review delved into five local solar-oriented companies,
and how solar energy (including heating) works in the area. Key to the story:
It’s the Pittsburgh newspaper! (photo below from Pittsburghlive.com)
Local Sunny Tales
AZ – it needs to become the “Silicon Valley” of solar, the Phoenix Business
Journal learned.
CA – SMUD (the Sacramento city utility) plans to start putting solar
arrays along state highways. Starting point, according to the local
business newspaper, will be 1.5 mW to be located along Highway 50.
CO (1) – two companies, including a division of E Light Electric Services
Inc. (Englewood) – an electrical contractor – have won a $17.3M stimulus-funded
contract “to install a solar power system capable of generating 3.2 mW of power
at the Denver Federal Center.” Denver
Business Journal.
CO (2) – a national lab (unit of DoE) will evaluate “the environmental
impacts that large solar arrays can have on the landscape.” Daily Camerastory.
Photo below from National Wind Technology Center.
GA – the state PSC (regulatory agency) “is boosting – to 50% from
10% – the amount of renewable energy that comes from solar sources in the company's
Premium Green Energy mix. The percentage that comes from biomass will decrease
to 50% from 90%.” From: Atlanta
Journal.
MA – Western Mass. Electric Co. plans to put a 1.8 mW unit in Pittsfield,
on an 8-acre site (from
CNNMoney).
NC – SunEdison “has activated the first phase of its 16-mW solar farm.”
It’s 14,000 solar panels, 4 mW of capacity. Release.
OR – The Oregonian’s article
claims that Oregon’s solar future “could hinge on copying Germany.” What the
heck does that mean? Among other things, a test for the state of a feed-in tariff.
State leaders, the reporter wrote, “intend to follow Germany's path –
practically step by step.”